Hitchens was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania. She moved to the Eastern Shore in 2004 and started working at a fitness center in nearby Bethany Beach.

“My mom grew up here and we have family nearby,” she said. “I started out in the fitness center at Sea Colony doing activities around the complex, and then I also lifeguarded on the side because they needed more guards.”

Hitchens occasionally worked other jobs out of the water, but something always seemed to pull her back in.

“I would take a little break, but then always go back to it,” she said. “Even in college, I worked at a YMCA and guarded and taught some lessons. For some reason, I always gravitated back to doing it.”

She came to Ocean Pines in 2012, again with family in the area, and right away started teaching swim lessons. From there, she became more and more active in aquatics programs and lessons, and she was the Aquatics Department manager prior to her promotion.

“The department has mostly been the same over the years – only little things have changed,” she said. “We’re constantly trying to improve classes and lessons, but I’ve always had my hand in lots of things. I organized exercise classes, I organized swim lessons, and I taught them, and I taught aquatics bike classes.

“I did all of that and helped to run certain things, so there wasn’t that much of a learning curve when it came to changing over to director, because I had been here for 12 years,” she added.

During and even after the pandemic, the Aquatics Department struggled to keep all five pools open during the summer because of a perpetual shortage of lifeguards. This summer, finally, things got back to normal.

“COVID didn’t help, but we didn’t have many guards in general. I feel like people just didn’t want to guard for some reason,” she said.

Hitchens went the usual route of attending job fairs, and she was able to build on her connections as a longtime swim instructor. She also recruited some of her daughter’s friends from a local high school swim team.

“A lot of them took our lifeguarding classes this year, so that was a big benefit – having that big lifeguarding class,” she said. “We also had a strong group of people returning that were very reliable, and they already knew how things ran. I’m hoping a lot of those people return again next year.”

During the summer, she also expanded offerings and hours at many of the pools, trying to give swim members and guests more value for their dollar.

“We do offer a lot of classes,” she said. “We also tried to do little things this summer, like keeping certain pools open later and giving people an opportunity to spend more time there. We opened the snack bar at the Swim and Racquet Club, and people really liked that. So, we’re hoping to do that again next year and to just keep improving things in small ways.”

Now, turning toward the fall and winter, Hitchens said she’s focused on creating a robust lineup of aquatics classes and programs geared toward all ages and skill levels. That includes daylong programs for grade-schoolers.

“We’ll have a junior lifeguard program that we didn’t have last winter, and we’ll schedule those on certain days when kids have off of school,” she said. “It’s always 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and it’s something for the parents to sign their kids up for where they don’t have to really worry about them for the whole day.”

Hitchens is also planning a Halloween swimming event, and more swim lessons to meet the high demand.

“We’re trying to get more instructors and finding ways to fit more classes in between other events happening in our pools,” she said.

All of that, and Hitchens balances being a mother of four. She said there’s slightly more flexibility running the Aquatics Department, rather than being the jack-of-all-trades holding it together.

“Two of my kids are older now and in high school, so it’s a little easier,” she said. “And with the younger two, my parents help me a little bit. But I’m trying to be more involved with their stuff after school this year.”

As for the future of Ocean Pines Aquatics, Hitchens said she just wants to keep building and improving the programming.

“We’re always trying to think of new things,” she said. “It’s a balance of seeing what people want and are willing to become involved in. We tried a few things over the summer, and we’ll hopefully continue to add new things that are a little bit different and eye-catching.”

Being a busy mother and working in pools since she was a teenager, Hitchens said, has certainly helped prepare her.

“Between having kids and doing lifeguarding and teaching, it comes pretty easy. And we’re always looking for things that are working elsewhere that we can incorporate,” she said.

For residents and homeowners, Hitchens said there’s almost always something going on at the pools – and the first class is always free.

“People should come out and try the classes!” she said. “For anything without equipment, you can come and try the first class for free and see which classes you would like to keep up with.”