Philly’s hardy take a plunge to raise funds to pay bonuses for city pool lifeguards

The money was essential and the mercury obliged — settling right at 32 degrees at noon Saturday as the brave and shivering leapt into an outdoor city pool for the “Philly Phreeze,” a fund-raiser to pay lifeguards bonuses during warmer days ahead.

It even started to snow as about 50 people plunged into the frigid John B. Kelly Pool in Fairmount Park, which had been filled with water for the first time in February for the fund-raiser.

Jumpers agreed to raise at least $50 to participate. Kathryn Ott Lovell, the city’s Parks and Recreation commissioner, told the crowd they had raised more than $65,000 just before the plunge.

That money will help combat a chronic lifeguard shortage at city pools. Guards will receive a $1,000 bonus at the end of the summer season if they apply by April 15 and $500 if they apply by May 15.

“Each summer a public swimming pool remains closed that community suffers and we are teaching fewer people how to swim,” Lovell said. “I have said it before and I’ll say it again: We cannot force people to be lifeguards, but we will beg and that is what we are doing.”

Robin Borlandoe, a retiree who attained celebrity status last summer when she returned to lifeguarding at age 70 to help ease the staffing crisis, leveraged media reports about her to raise more than $3,000 for the Philly Phreeze.

She plans to guard at the city’s Mill Creek Playground again this summer, where a Parks and Recreation employee was killed in a shooting in September.

“I just wanted to be there for the community this year,” Borlandoe said after her plunge Saturday.

City Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., who represents the park area that includes the pool, also made a splash, holding his nose as he broke the surface and then scrambling to get out of the water.

“Now’s the time to train them,” Jones said of lifeguards. “Now’s the time to get them ready. Because the saddest thing last summer was kids standing at a gate where a pool was closed.”

The city hopes to hire about 400 lifeguards this year after employing 196 in 2022, when 21 city pools were closed for staffing shortages. The starting pay is $16 per hour, typically for a 35-hour week, from June to August.

The city is also covering costs — about $175 per person — for the job application and lifeguard certification fees, along with physicals that can cost as much as $100.

Aspiring lifeguards must complete a 300-yard swim without stopping, tread water for two minutes, and retrieve a 10-pound brick from the deep end of a pool.

Philadelphia, a city replete with eccentric traditions, has long held swimming pool plunges in high regard.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell made a spectacle of opening day at city pools during his two terms as mayor, jumping in with children and cajoling other elected and appointed officials to take the plunge.

City Councilmember Mark Squilla, who attended Saturday’s event but did not make a splash, leapt into a pool in 2017 while wearing a shirt and tie and suit pants. Squilla later said it was unplanned, he just “got caught up” in the enthusiasm.

Jeannette Brugger, a bicycle and pedestrian coordinator in the city’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Sustainability who lives in Mount Airy, was among the first to jump into the pool Saturday, the coldest day in three weeks, with a group of friends.

She and her friends have taken up cold-water plunging as a group activity, so they were well-prepared for Saturday’s leap.

“My kids go to city pools,” Brugger said. “So I want those city pools and lifeguards to be there.”