By Shian Omar | Features Editor

SOS Lifeguards Kassandra Rodriguez and Madalyn Katz listen to Lifeguard Sydney Martin play the guitar at the lifeguard retreat. The SOS Lifeguards attended a retreat at the Lakeview Conference Center in Palestine, TX on June 27-29 to bond and prepare for the upcoming year.

Coast Guards Alex Gandy, Laura Taylor and Anna Saleh plan each day of the retreat with a focus on specifics that build a good Lifeguard.

“Day one is all about strengths—individual and within groups,” Ms. Gandy said. “Day two is all about about how to be a Lifeguard. Day three focuses on bringing it all together in one overall mission for the year.”

There are many tasks to promote bonding on the trip. “I loved the activity called ‘Lifeguard Links.’ Everybody had to get to know one person that he or she got the name of when we arrived,” Lifeguard Yeonju Park said. “Whether directly or not, we got to know our person and talked about that person in front of everybody and, at the end, everybody was ‘linked.’”

This year math teachers Achille Tiam and Colby Goodman also attended the retreat and joined in activities.

“I definitely enjoyed the activities and more social aspects of the retreat most,” Lifeguard Kalia Hayes said.

The 2014-2015 seniors are no strangers to the SOS program. They were the first group of freshmen to receive assistance and are able to bring many new ideas to the program.

Despite the lack of sleep many students had during the retreat, it certainly has reinforced their confidence on how the year will play out.

“The trip served to make SOS seem like an even more spectacular program than I already thought up in my head,” Kalia said. “I can’t wait to do great things with my quad, the freshmen and the Coast Guards.”

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