etc.
A DREAM REALIZED
A junior lifeguard camp alumnus is patrolling the
Wrightsville Beach strand this summer
WBy Simon Gonzalez
HEN Jeremy Owens conceived the Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue Junior
Lifeguard Camp in 2015, he wanted the participants to have fun, to be sure,
but he also had a more serious purpose in mind.
“We’re actually training the lifeguards of the future,” Owens told
Wrightsville Beach Magazine in 2017, when the camp expanded from one session to two.
The lofty goal was realized this year when Brendan Huston became the first junior lifeguard
camp graduate to become a WBOR lifeguard. Huston, who was 15 when he attended the camp
in 2016, made it through the tryouts and is patrolling the beach strand this summer.
“They tell us it’s the best job in the world,
and honestly I believe that,” Huston says. “You
get to work out, be at the beach, and help
people. It’s definitely the best thing ever.”
Huston was born and raised in Wilmington,
spending as much time as possible at the
beach. That prompted a desire to attend the
lifeguard camp.
“I had an interest in the ocean and the life-guards,”
he says.
The junior lifeguards, ages 9-17, experience
the same things as the professionals — mock
rescues, CPR and first-aid training, running
in the sand, and a buddy swim with rescue
buoys. The highlight comes at the end of the
week when they are assigned to a lifeguard
stand.
“Sitting with the lifeguard at the end of the
week, it was definitely cool to see that side of
it,” Huston says. “It really made me have a dif-ferent
appreciation at a younger age.”
This year’s camps, scheduled for the weeks
of June 21 and July 26, filled up quickly with
50 students in each one. The original vision
remains: to train and inspire the lifeguards of
the future. But there is something new — the
name. It is now the Jeremy Owens Junior
Lifeguard Camp, in honor of the former
Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue captain who
died in tragic circumstances last November.
“The camp name was changed at the
request of Ocean Rescue,” says Katie Ryan,
recreation program supervisor for Wrightsville
Beach. “Renaming the program the Jeremy
Owens Lifeguard Camp is more than appropri-ate
– he started it. Jeremy had a huge impact
on the community, he was loved by many, and
he is greatly missed.”
Brendan Huston teaches a portion of the Jeremy Owens Junior Lifeguard Camp
in June. Huston is a current member of Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue who
participated in the junior camp in 2016.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com 19
WBM
COURTESY OF WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH OCEAN RESCUE