The Long Beach Lifeguard Alumni Association awards scholarships each year to city lifeguards. One of this year’s recipients was Joseph Lattanzi, an east crew lifeguard who will pursue a volunteer role in the Point Lookout-Lido Fire Department.

Lattanzi, who turned 18 on Sept. 2, received the Ray Ellmer scholarship, which commemorates the life of Long Beach Fire Department Lieutenant Ray Ellmer — who died in 2024, from what Michael DeLury, the association’s president, said was a brain-related illness.

Ellmer was a practicing attorney in Long Beach for more than 30 years, a Long Beach Fire Department volunteer for over a decade, and a founding member of the alumni association.

“One of his last wishes was to set aside funds to establish a scholarship for a lifeguard pursuing a career as a first responder, or something similar,” DeLury said. “This year, it was Joe Lattanzi.”

Lattanzi, a second-year lifeguard, was described by his peers as a “jack-of-all trades.” He got involved in theatrical and musical productions at Long Beach High School, rising through the ranks of the lighting team to master electrician. A three-sport athlete, Lattanzi ran cross-country and track, and was on the swim team, through his senior year, graduating last June.

Outside of school, Lattanzi is also an Eagle Scout through Boy Scout Troop 332 in East Rockaway.

Mike Lundwald, captain for the lifeguard patrol’s east crew, said he’s known the Lattanzi family for years. Joseph’s father, also named Joseph, helped him run an intramural basketball in the 1990s.

More than two decades later, Lundwald taught young Joseph for physical science, during the 2019-2020 school year. Lundwald said when the east crew’s flagpole on Neptune Boulevard was broken, Lattanzi grabbed tools from the trunk of his car and made repairs.

“Joe is an outgoing young man,” Lundwald said, “He’s always the first to help and a go-getter kid. That’s what the Ray Ellmer award is about.”

Lattanzi, who’s now pursuing lighting and design at Montclair State University, in Montclair, New Jersey, said he appreciated receiving the award because of who it embodied. 

“I wasn’t ready to receive the award,” Lattanzi said. “I was just in shock. The first people I called were my mom and dad. I’m always helping the community, so it meant a lot.”