hese middle schoolers are making a splash and learning to save lives.
"Knowing CPR is valuable because you never know when you might need to use it," said head lifeguard at Nampa Recreation Center Charlee Draper.
This weekend a group of local Nampa kids ages 11-14 are learning basic but critical skills at the junior lifeguard boot camp in Nampa. They're too young for formal lifeguard certification, but they're leaving the pool CPR and first aid certified.
"I would be happy to save someone's life and do CPR on them," said 11-year-old Cody Miller.
When Cody was one year old, he took a plunge into a pool.
"My mom didn't know it, and I jumped in the deep end, and she got really scared, but she jumped in and came and swam to me but I popped up, and she grabbed me," said Miller.
Thanks to his mom's quick response he was completely fine and now he knows how to respond if he saw a similar situation.
"If you're doing [CPR] on an infant you don't do it this way you do it with two fingers," said Miller.
The four-day boot camp also teaches the kids to work together in potentially high-stress situations.
"They have to work as a team right away so it kind of gets them out of their comfort zone cause they have to break the ice day one cause they'll be rescuing each other and that's really close contact with strangers," said Draper.
Some of the kids here are getting a head start on future aspirations, like 13-year-old Kylee Keyes.
"Yes I do want to become a lifeguard one day," said Keyes.
They might be young, but the skills they're learning are important to know at any age.
"If you have the training, it's going to be, it could save somebody's life one day, and if you have that knowledge, you're not just winging it then you could potentially just save someone," said Keyes.
