Myrtle Beach, SC	Myrtle Beach, SC
Chicago, IL

Welcome to GO-FIRST!

GO-FIRST introduces students to First Responder values, skills and services in the action-learning format experienced everyday in junior lifeguard programs — JGs — around the world.

The lead unit — GO 10-8! Tour and Team — introduces you to the junior lifeguards who are the students' special hosts and new friends in the GO-FIRST program.

Next are the Big 5 action-learning units: RESCUE, SAFETY, HEALTH, SERVICE and COOL WATER.

HEALTH is in the middle of the Big 5 for a very special reason: the most important First Response to Life is your child's personal commitment to make smart and healthy life decisions. A studen's fitness and growth in mind, body and soul is the bridge to the
skills of RESCUE and SAFETY and the spirit of SERVICE and COOL WATER.

As important, the lessons learned in GO-FIRST address many of the greatest threats to your child's HEALTH: drowning, spinal injuries from risky water activities, obesity, bad peer pressure and negative self-esteem leading to life-threatening choices and actions.

Each unit is hosted by a featured junior lifeguard program and is presented in a multimedia video, voice and text format. And each ends with a sample Assignment and Links to additional learning resources.

As GO-FIRST is only an introductory program, we direct you to the best, most comprehensive and some of the newest teaching and study programs in both print and electronic formats.

As an example, for RESCUE and SAFETY, we direct you to the United States Lifesaving Association Manual of Open Water Lifesaving (see www.usla.org) and the substantial resources of FEMA and America's Citizen Corps, especially Are You Ready? A Guide to Citizen Preparedness (see www.fema.gov). For HEALTH, we direct you to America's Doctor, once ocean lifeguard and now U.S. Surgeon General VADM Richard "Coast-to-Coast" Carmona, (see www.hhs.org). The National Physicians Center is also a member of the GO-FIRST Team Doctor (see www.physicianscenter.org). We also direct you to the global network of the International Life Saving Federation and many of its members (see www.ilsf.org).

In our Legends of Lifeguarding section, you will meet some of our most valuable adventure-learning resources: women and men who have dedicated their lives to Life, like our National Chairman, Chicago's legendary Joe Pecoraro, and Michael Kiefer, a Long Beach (NY) lifeguard who became a NY city firefighter in January 2001 and gave his life for all of us on 9-11.

Please note that most JG programs place different age groups into A (14-17), B (12-13) and C (9-11) divisions, mostly to respect age-related differences in physical strength and waterwork. (Some JG programs have Australia-inspired "Nipper" divisions, starting with 5 year olds.) In this, the pilot GO-FIRST website, we present As, Bs and Cs together in most of the units.

Not only are JGs one of the world?s most popular public health and safety cadet programs, they are also one of the world's best educational systems — over 70% of JG instructors are star teachers in their local school districts!

Now, join the experts — super moms from Myrtle Beach and Seaside Elementary School in South Carolina and Chicago's Leone Park Beach — to learn more about GO-FIRST and the wonderful JG programs in America and the world that inspire us.