We love our employees and that’s why we want to give a big shoutout to Bryson C., one of our lifeguard supervisors. He was recently award Jeff Ellis & Associates’ Hunter Gould Scholarship. The scholarship covered 100 percent of the tuition expense and $1,000 towards travel and lodging for the 2026 Ellis and Associates’ International Aquatic Safety School® held recently in Tempe, AZ.
The five-day Aquatic Safety School is designed to help aquatic leaders become better skilled at water safety, prevention, and emergency response. It featured keynote speakers, case studies, statistical analysis, as well as comprehensive hands-on in-water and classroom training for lifeguard instructors.
Bryson was selected as the recipient of this scholarship by the Gould family because of his dedication, leadership, and character. Growing up, Bryson experienced seizures on a regular basis that prevented him from doing normal childhood activities and resulted in him being bullied and teased a lot.
In January 2023, doctors recognized that he had officially outgrown his seizures, and in May of that year at the age of 15 he started working as lifeguard at Soaky Mountain. When Bryson turned 16, he also started working at our sister property Wilderness at the Smokies, located across the street..
In 2025, as a high school senior, Bryson received the CDC peer tutor award at Carter High School for helping, protecting and encouraging other students with medical conditions.
Today, he is a full-time supervisor at both Soaky Mountain and Wilderness at the Smokies.
According to D’Anna Johnson, our Assistant Director of Aquatics, “From the moment Bryson joined our team, his energy and his heart stood out. The Aquatics team members adore him and look up to him, and I don’t just mean they like working with him. He truly changes the environment around him. He lifts people up and makes them feel seen. That’s rare.
Bryson carries a level of empathy that you don’t often see in someone his age. Caring for others isn’t something he tries to do, it is simply who he is. Knowing Bryson’s struggles with having seizures as a child, makes him winning this scholarship even more special.”
We’d like to congratulate Bryson again on receiving this scholarship and let him know just how proud we are of him.