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American Red Cross Classes

The Aquatic & Fitness Center offers dozens of American Red Cross Health and Safety Services classes throughout the year.  While primarily geared toward professional rescuers and health care providers, these courses can be taken by anyone.  For more information about the American Red Cross—all that they do, their Mission and course offerings click here for their website.  

For more about what we offer see below.  Call the facility at 716-876-7424 for questions about registration.

Classes Offered at the Aquatic & Fitness Center:

We offer the following basic level classes:

  • Administering Emergency Oxygen (Full, Review and Challenge Courses)
  • CPR/AED for the Professional Rescuer and Health Care Provider (Full, Review and Challenge Courses)
  • First Aid (Full course)
  • Lifeguarding (Full and Review Courses)  
  • Waterfront Lifeguarding (Full Course)

We also offer the following instructor level courses:
  • Lifeguarding Instructor
  • Water Safety Instructor

 2021 Course Listing

Red Cross Class Information

+ - Red Cross Class Formats Click to collapse

Please Note: All courses follow American Red Cross guidelines and are taught by our own certified, experienced staff.

Class Formats

The American Red Cross offers three different class formats—Full, Review and Challenge.

  • "Full" courses are for people who need certification the first time or who have allowed aprevious certification to lapse more than one month (30 days).
  • "Review" courses will review the course material using videos, textbooks, and question and answer sessions. Mastery of the course material is the responsibility of both the students and the instructor.  Recently the American Red Cross has clarified its position concerning Review Classes.  Please read this below.

30-Day Grace Period Allowed for Basic-Level Review Course

A Review course is an abbreviated version of the full course. The purpose of a review course is to refresh and re-evaluate the knowledge and skills. The knowledge and skills requirements of a review course are the same as the original, full course.

To be eligible to participate in a review course, a participant must possess a certificate in the same course that is expired for no more than 30 days. Upon successful completion of the review course, the participant receives a certificate that is valid for 2 years from date of completion of the review course.

The 30-day grace period only provides an opportunity to enroll in a basic-level review course. It is not considered an extension to an expired certificate nor for entry into an instructor-level course.

  • "Challenge" courses do not review the course materials. Students must have mastery of all material and be able to perform all skills prior to the beginning of the course. Students have one opportunity to pass the written test. Mastery of all material is the responsibility of the student only, as there will be no review of material or question and answer session prior to the course beginning.

Finally, all courses will require successful demonstration of skills and scoring 80% on all written tests.

+ - Red Cross Course Descriptions Click to collapse

The following are brief descriptions of the classes we offer.  For more detailed information please see the American Red Cross site here.  To check out the different class formats, click here.

CPR/AED for the Professional Rescuer and Healthcare Provider

This course teaches one- and two-rescuer CPR, use of an AED, use of resuscitation masks and bag-valve masks for ventilating victims, and how to respond in special rescue situations.

Prerequisites: None.

Course Length: Full Course-8 hours, Review Course-4 hours, Challenge Course- 3 hours

First Aid

Prepare you to respond to basic emergencies, and recognize and care for injuries while using the EMS system. 

Prerequisites: None.

Course Length:  3.5 hours (There is no Review or Challenge class available)

Lifeguard Training

Perhaps the most comprehensive course of it’s kind in  Western New York, our course is taught by staff that works in the field year round. Each course we offer includes First Aid, CPR/AED for the Professional Rescuer and Health Care Provider, Administering Emergency Oxygen.  (Only Full and Review courses are available, Challenge courses are not.)

Prerequisites: 15 years old by the last day of class; swim 300 yards using front crawl and breaststroke; swim one length, retrieve a 10 pound brick in 7 to 10 feet of water and carry it back to starting point using only your legs, and exit the pool in one minute, forty seconds, and tread water without hands for two minutes.

Course Length: Full Course- 30 hours, Review Course- 14 hours

Lifeguard Class photo 1

Lifeguard Training Instructor

The Lifeguard Training Instructor course teaches one to plan and teach the Lifeguard Training and other associated courses.

Prerequisites: 17 years of age and current lifeguard training certification.

Course Length: 27 hours. 

Water Safety Instructor

The Water Safety Instructor course teaches one to plan and teach swimming and aquatic safety courses.

Prerequisites: 16 years of age by the last day of the class; swim 25 yards each of front and back crawl, breaststroke, elementary backstroke, sidestroke and 15 yards of butterfly; float/scull on back for one minute in deep water; tread water for one minute. Learn to Swim Level 4 ability

Course Length: 33 hours.

Waterfront Lifeguarding Module

Learn the basic skills for Waterfront lifeguarding for work in beach front and open water environments. This course is offered in June only.

Prerequisites: Current lifeguard certification which must be presented at the beginning of class.

Course Length: 7 hours.

+ - Red Cross Registration Click to collapse

In order to register for any of the American Red Cross classes, you can stop in at the Aquatic & Fitness Center or  go to our Online Registration and Tee Time page.  Simply follow the instructions and you should be able to register.  When you do register, please be sure to review all information contained within this section.  Some other items to keep in mind are as follows:

  1. Register early.  Do not delay in registering as doing so may result in that class being full.
  2. You must register at least one week prior to the first day of class.
  3. All class fees are due at registration.
  4. Please plan on attending all classes as scheduled.  If you have or foresee a conflict, register for another class.  We cannot offer classes for one student particularly if the class requires other students ( and not manikins) to perform required skills.
  5. It is the responsibility of students enrolled in a review or challenge course to provide their own textbooks and pocket masks.
  6. Textbooks may be actual books or digital copies available from www.redcross.org and downloaded onto laptops, tablets of phones and must be used by students during the class.
  7. Days, times, and fees are subject to change.
  8. Classes may be cancelled due to insufficient interest.

Please call us at 716-876-7424 with any additional questions you may have.