{"id":7215,"date":"2015-10-01T23:36:17","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T04:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/?p=7215"},"modified":"2016-01-28T13:19:25","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T18:19:25","slug":"ripple-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/?p=7215","title":{"rendered":"Ripple Effect"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a>A life can change in an instant. This has certainly proven to be the case for senior Alex Lipe. He has had the duty of changing and saving not one, but two lives in two consecutive years.<\/p>\n

Lipe works as a lifeguard at Lake Nixon where kindergarteners through fifth graders attend camp throughout the summer. \u201cI love working with kids. I even tell people that start to work there that I would volunteer if I had to.\u201d However, his view has changed since he first began lifeguarding. \u201cI started working at first because I was only interested in the money, but I later found out that I just love working with children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years ago as a junior, Lipe saved his first life. \u201cThere was a little kid who began to drown. He had slipped off into the deep water and I jumped in, grabbed him, and took him back to shore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mount St. Mary senior Baily Pearson, who has worked with Lipe for the past two summers, witnessed the save. \u201cIt was a very quick save,\u201d she said. \u201cThe boy wasn\u2019t even in Alex\u2019s guarding area which showed he was on top of things.\u201d According to Pearson, Lipe is a great co-worker. \u201cHe takes his job very seriously and is very nice and funny to us all. He really connects with the kids and they all love him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lipe also saved a life this past summer. \u201cA boy was drowning after going off the diving board. He lost his shoe and in panic, he swallowed a lot of water. So I jumped and scooped him up. My heart was racing, but not like the first because I knew what it felt like. It was also my last shift of the day so I wasn\u2019t expecting anything special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zac Griffith, another co-worker and good friend of Lipe, was a witness to this save. \u201cHis save was majestic. Without Alex the kid would have drowned. It was actually really cool and it really made me pay attention more because I want to save someone.\u201d Griffith said that Lipe taught him everything he knows which has helped him in his lone year of lifeguarding.<\/p>\n

Lipe said he felt incredible after saving both lives. \u201cI spoke to the parents after both rescues and the amount of times they said thank you just made me feel great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of lifeguarding, Lipe also teaches a swim class. \u201cIn the mornings, I teach kids how to swim. I teach them how to tread water, hold their breath, and just regular distance swimming. I occasionally teach them how to dive if they really want to know.\u201d Lipe said he lifeguards because he loves the water, and most pools give memberships to workers.<\/p>\n

After high school Lipe plans on going to nursing school in Arkansas before going to medical school. His career path, however, wasn\u2019t chosen without a little help. \u201cMy mom is in the medical field and my aunt is a doctor. Also, the thought of helping others inspired me to take the medical route.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lifeguarding is a difficult task and according to Lipe, it takes only one important characteristic to be a good lifeguard. \u201cThe only thing it truly takes is caring. If you care about the people, everything you do will work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A life can change in an instant. This has certainly proven to be the case for senior Alex Lipe. He has had the duty of changing and saving not one, but two lives in two consecutive years. Lipe works as a lifeguard at Lake Nixon where kindergarteners through fifth graders attend camp throughout the summer….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[196],"tags":[208,143],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xfZw-1Sn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7215"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7218,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7215\/revisions\/7218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}