Bay Venues aquatic centres, such as Baywave, are well set up for those with disabilities, but as member Aaron Mileham has discovered, it’s the brilliant staff that can make the experience even better.
Aaron Mileham is on an exercise bike, looking down through large glass windows at the busy aquatic centre below. He is scanning the Baywave crowd for a bright red shirt and finally finds the familiar face he is looking for. Jordan Neill – his favourite lifeguard. His friend. Aaron forms circles with both hands and holds them up to his eyes, as if focusing a pair of binoculars. Jordan spots the signal and waves back. Aaron points down to the leisure pool, and then holds up 10 fingers. He will be down in 10 minutes.
“He honestly makes my day,” Jordan says. “He is one of my favourite people.”
Aaron has been coming to Baywave in Mount Maunganui for about 12 years and uses the Clubfit gym and swimming pool complex at least four days a week, often alongside his dad, John. Aaron has Down syndrome and is partially deaf. The 24-year-old is mostly non-verbal and uses sign language to communicate, which is how he and Jordan forged their strong connection.
Jordan started working at Baywave as a lifeguard in 2020 and, shortly after meeting Aaron for the first time, decided she was going to try and learn some sign language so that she could communicate with him.She got help from a friend who is fluent, and also spent time on the New Zealand Sign Language website memorising the basics.Jordan learned how to sign hello, how to spell out her name, and how to ask Aaron if he is okay. This small gesture left a huge first impression.
“I almost cried because his face just lit up, he was so excited,” Jordan says. “I could see how excited he was to be able to communicate.” Since then, the 22-year-old university student has learned a lot more.“And now we sort of have our own little sign language going on,” she says with a laugh.
Aaron and Jordan have come up with Baywave-specific hand signs so that they can refer to particular things like the blue floating mats, which Aaron likes to use in the leisure pool when the waves are turned on.They also have a sign for pool noodle, a sign for hydroslide, and a sign for jumping off the bombing platform, which Aaron does with glee. Jordan has also taught her lifeguard colleagues how to sign hello and spell out their names, and now Aaron plays games with all of them poolside. He points an imaginary wand at the lifeguards, “freezing” and “unfreezing” them. He squirts them with a water gun. He dances with them.
“Oh, we love dancing,” Jordan says. The lifeguards put on ABBA and the Madagascar song “I Like To Move It” and boogie alongside Aaron, taking turns to teach each other new dance moves. Aaron goes to StarJam at Arataki Community Centre, so he always has plenty of new material.
“He learns fast. He loves to dance,” John Mileham says. John says social interaction is generally a major challenge for his son, however.“Just getting to know people, that’s the main problem for Aaron – friends, and mixing. It’s quite difficult.” While Aaron is mostly non-verbal, he does use his voice from time to time.
Like when he is about to jump into the pool from the bombing platform and lets out a loud, joyful scream. Or when he picks up the lifeguard radio to have a chat. “He will talk, and it will probably mean something to him, but to us it probably wouldn’t mean a lot,” John says. “But he does speak in his own way.”
Despite the verbal communication barriers, John says Aaron has got to know a lot of people at Baywave over the years, both regulars and staff, “and he’ll go over and say hi”. Those people have become his community. “It’s good for him. Aaron doesn’t have a lot of friends, he probably looks at the lifeguards as being his friends.” For Jordan, the feeling is mutual.
“I was at Memorial Pool for a while and when I came back to Baywave, Aaron was so excited to see me again, he gave me a big hug and it was very emotional.” She says all Baywave staff like to make the experience special for Aaron. They gave him a birthday card last year, as well as a pirate hat and photos of him with the lifeguard team.
He has those photos stuck on the wall at home, and the lifeguards have them pinned up on a noticeboard in the staff room. John has a lot of gratitude for the staff at Baywave, and all the support they offer.
He calls Jordan “the life and soul of the party”. She is the favourite lifeguard, after all, the friend Aaron looks for every time he walks through the door.
He scans the poolside crowd, binoculars at the ready.
Join the Bay Venues Community
There are currently more than 1600 active disability memberships allowing complimentary access to Bay Venues’ five aquatic facilities, including Baywave. The memberships are for Tauranga City residents with a permanent disability. Baywave has accessible changing cubicles with toilets and showers, an elevator to the Clubfit gym, hoist access to the lap pool and spa, and ramps at the leisure/wave pool and cafe. There’s also a water wheelchair available.
Email info@bayvenues.co.nz for more information about disability memberships.
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