Looking back over my life, my eight summers serving as a lifeguard on the Long Beach Township Beach Patrol remain among my fondest memories. The friendships, the competition, the commitment to protecting the public, and the pride of representing our community created experiences that have stayed with me for decades.

When I first joined the beach patrol in the late 1970s, it consisted of six separate patrols stretching from Loveladies in the north to Holgate in the south.