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If you come to the beach on Sundays and Holidays, you’ll see both paid ocean rescuers and the volunteer life saving corps.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A tradition over 100 years old returned to Jax Beach Memorial Day as volunteer lifeguards started patrolling the beach — part of a new 5 year agreement reached between the City of Jacksonville Beach and the Volunteers Lifesaving Corps.
Leaders say the new agreement is essential to ensuring beach-goers are protected during the busiest days of the year.
Donning the blue and white uniform, volunteer lifeguards are part of a tradition that goes back to 1912.
“We’re the only ones left in America, the only volunteer lifeguards left so we want to keep that tradition going and be able to be there to help mold and motivate the next generation of life savers,” Tommy Cassaro, Captain of Volunteer Lifesaving Corps, said.
The controversy over volunteers patrolling Jax beach started in 2021, when the Department of Labor said that using unpaid lifeguards to patrol the beach violated labor law.
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After years of back and forth and a potential law suit, a new 5 year agreement was reached last April.
“We had to really kind of pull them apart and put them back together with respect for the over 100 year organization that is the volunteer life saving corps… that just helps us get better coverage on the beach, same level of professionalism and skilled lifeguards that our residents and visitors are used to seeing,” Mayor Christine Hoffman of the City of Jacksonville Beach, said.
The volunteers will go back to patrolling on holidays and Sundays but unlike before, the volunteers will work side by side with paid lifeguard staff on those days.
“We’re ecstatic to be working as one big family together again, and what is our goal, to be able to help the bathers and beach goers that not only leave here but travel and vacation here,” Cassaro said.
As part of the agreement, the iconic lifeguard station was donated from the Red Cross to the City of Jacksonville Beach. The red cross logo were removed however the Mayor says the city is looking into painting the building with the logos of both the volunteers and the city.
