The Summer Switch: Junior Piper Benjamin leaves her usual summer routine in Kansas City behind for New Jersey

Junior Piper Benjamin picked up her final ribbons from Mission Hills Country Club after CCSAKC swim champs week in July, which meant it was time for the annual family flight to Stone Harbor, New Jersey where her cousin, Justin Rhyne, lives.

Piper and her cousins have made years worth of sun-burnt memories of kayaking and fishing all day while her parents spent time catching up with the rest of their family. It’s the perfect paradise for the Benjamin family, which is why they’ve decided to pack up their things and move there for the upcoming summer.

“The beach is kind of like a lake or farm in Kansas City,” Justin said. “People will go down to their lake house for a weekend [in Kansas] while here people go to the beach for the summer.” 

Stone Harbor is the local beach town in New Jersey that borders Avalon, the city that Piper and her mother are staying in, while her dad, Mitch, holds down the fort in Kansas City. 

The area is a breeding ground for kids of all ages to spend their summers, coming from towns in New Jersey, Philadelphia and, of course, Kansas City. 

“It’s always been on my bucket list,” Piper’s mom Jennifer Benjamin said. “When I was in college, a bunch of kids and I rented a house there and we would go down on the weekends, but I’ve never stayed there for the whole summer.” 

Over the past years, the Benjamin family has experienced several scheduling conflicts with Piper’s swimming and Jennifer’s job that prevented them from making the full-summer switch sooner. After Jennifer retired earlier this year, it seemed like the perfect time to go through with it. 

“The hardest thing about leaving, other than my dad and my friends, this summer is going to be leaving Mission Hills [Country Club],” Piper said. “I’ve been infatuated with the idea of summer swim team, champs and eventually being a coach my entire life.” 

Although she will be missing out on her normal summer swim season, Piper still gets to test her skills in the water this summer by trying out to be a beach lifeguard — one of the major appeals to her when her mom first introduced the idea of spending the entire summer in Avalon. 

Beach lifeguarding is only one of the many jobs that Avalon and the surrounding towns have to offer. Justin spends his time working at an aqua park down the beach where he maintains water obstacles and jet skis. 

“There’s a lot of other really fun things to do on the beach,” Justin said. “One of the best parts though is being able to walk anywhere in town and see kids your age, it’s really easy to meet people.” 

While the position of a lifeguard is a dream job for Piper, it won’t be that easy to obtain. On top of a normal resume that an employee would submit for a lifeguarding job, applicants have to partake in a strenuous tryout procedure. 

Piper finds herself counting on the treadmill as she attempts to lower her mile time to at least six and a half minutes to prepare for the required seven-minute mile beach run — rerunning it every time she doesn’t make it.

7.5 mph: I’ve got this.

7.1 mph: I’m getting closer.

6.8 mph: Just a little faster.

“From what I’ve heard the hardest part of the job is the tryout, other than that there’s not any big danger like a shark to protect anyone from,” Piper said. “I think the thing I’m most worried about is the stress level of essentially having a full-time job out there.” 

Going to New Jersey won’t only be an experience for Benjamin to have a new summer job, but it’s an opportunity to step outside of the Kansas City boundary and discover what she likes about living in other places of the country. 

“For me, Kansas City will always be home, but this is a great chance to try something new and see what Pipe likes,” Jennifer said. 

On and off the beach Piper will be making all sorts of connections and visiting different places like colleges that she might eventually see herself at. For her, it’s more about a change of lifestyle than it is about scenery. 

“One side of me could see myself going to KU and living here for the rest of my life,” Benjamin said. “And, another part of me really wants to go out and try something new and make my own out of something new.”