There are many aspects of her job that Rosa Peña loves.

“I’ve been a lifeguard for 25 years, and I love it,” she says. “I love to see people safe. I love to encourage people to swim. I love, you know, people just doing the exercise.”

To Peña, a lifeguard at the Asser Levy Recreation Center in New York City, what she does for her community is not just a job but a calling. She goes to work every day with a sense of purpose, determined to help others in the same way she was once helped as a child.

“I used to go to the beach, I used to go out and I would swim to shore with the waves and then go back and do it again,” she recalls. “And then one time I nearly drowned doing that and I grabbed my sister. She came with me, and then someone actually got us out. So I always said, ‘Oh, I’m going to swim so I can become a lifeguard, so that I can save people.’”

For her service to her community, Peña, a member of AFSCME District Council 37, is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award. The award recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.