Phase Two of #DocumenttheDookie Launch Scheduled

The Town of Hinton Aquatics and Strategic Services are excited to announce that our second #DocumenttheDookie video is complete, and we're only days away from releasing it to the community! This new video builds on the original concept (find it here) of honest, direct, and slightly comedic conversations around a sensitive topic so as to break stigma and encourage our users to report accidents when they happen, and adds in cartoon representation of common but dangerous bioforms that come as result of fecal contamination in our pool equipment.

We've set up a premiere on Facebook for Monday at 12pm, and we hope you join us in the launch of this education resource.

We're also encouraging any child groups, be it school classes, clubs, teams, etc. to let us know if they'd like our lifeguards to speak with their students before taking part in lesson programming. If you'd like our aquatics staff to speak with your group regarding pool cleanliness, please send an email by clicking here.

Background

In late 2018, Town of Hinton Aquatics, Strategic Services, and local design partners launched a new video tool to help engage in conversations about an icky topic - poo in the pool.

Pool's across Alberta are having facing a similar problem - Pool users are having accidents, and not reporting them. As result, lifeguards are unable to use proportional responses, and sometimes aren't able to intervene until accidents have become big problems.

Our #DocumentTheDookie campaign aimed to teach children, parents, and pool users in general how they can help us keep our facility clean, healthy, and open for use. Using humour, friendly imaging, and an empathetic tone, we will look to both correct behaviours of individuals using the facility too soon after illness, or without protective swim underwear, while also destigmatizing the act of informing lifeguards of accidents having happened.

In addition to being used locally by Aquatics, we've seen the video shared to multiple communities across the province, illustrating the need for an open and honest conversation about a private subject.