July 15, 2026: Spontaneous Staff Recognition
Good Morning & Happy Wednesday,
In recent years, International Lifeguard Appreciation Day has cropped up as a directive to recognize aquatic staff on July 31. In this newsletter, I'm going to tell you why, in my opinion, set dates - invented by companies to sell products & services, see Valentine's Day & ILAD - are never as resonant as honest, inexpensive recognition in the moment.
My love language is gifting, something I learned from a very young age from my stay-at-home dad. He would offer a cold pop/soda to the mailman on a hot day, we'd take Tim's coffee & a bowtie donut to shut-in Mr. B after leaving school early on a half-day Friday, we had small jars of homemade sundried tomatoes & tarragon vinegar ready if anyone stopped by to visit. The timing and thoughtfulness were what made this resonant each and every single time, not the value of the item.
That's stuck with me through my personal & business life. Yes, I absolutely recognize marquee events like the grand opening of a new aquatic facility, send cards for milestone life events (you know I love a parent & tot swim bag), but I also strongly feel that you need to engineer a framework for on the spot recognition.
I keep $10 coffee cards, bulk thank you cards from Amazon, postage stamps, etc. in my truck for any time a colleague, supplier, client, store clerk, medical/admin staff goes out of their way to help or needs cheer on a sucky day.
If I'm showing up at a client before 9am, I bring muffins or donuts. If I'm showing up mid-day in the summer, I bring a box or two of popsicles. If I'm headed home and exhausted (last stop of the day), a Costco pizza goes a long way. Don't over complicate things by planning something expensive or fancy, or you'll never do it. Action > Intention.
I'm not here to bash Lifeguard Appreciation Day. If it's that the only way you can get funding or support from your organization to do something special for your aquatic team to purchase swag or order takeout, GO FOR IT! You have my full support.
But we're also in the middle of a heat wave in July in a crushing economy. What about your customer service staff, pool operators, slide attendants, cleaners, programmers, security, etc. who are also integral to keeping the facility open? $1 cones or a dirty soda bar in the staff room TODAY might be what saves everyone's sanity.
A note about swag: physical recognition items absolutely have a very real place in aquatics. However, they cost a lot of money to be done well, and if they're not done well, staff will throw junky stuff out.
I am a huge fan of just going to the grocery store, truly. You can stretch your money so much further. Ditto you can get a massive pot of living flowers from Home Depot or Lowe's for half the price of wilted cut flowers.
Note: watch for glass jars with some of these activities.
- Everyone offers freezies, so a selection of popsicles honestly feels kind of elevated and meets almost every food restriction or allergy. Look at the end caps at your grocery store for what's on sale, and - where possible - spend a few extra bucks to get brands people recognize. Use a sharpie to individually label them if you ditch the boxes.
- Queso bar: a couple of bags of corn chips, a few jars of queso & salsa (fortify with hand-pulled rotisserie chicken if you want) in a crockpot at work, and you have very happy staff. Bonus: the salt makes everyone hydrate.
- Dirty soda bar: my local Winners (Canadian Marshall's) has a huge selection of clearance flavored syrups in the food aisle. Select 1-2, buy 1-2 cases of neutral pop/soda, a tub of whipped topping, a jar of cherries, and a bag of ice if you don't have an ice machine at work.
- Ice cream sundae bar: 2-3 tubs of ice cream, a jar of cherries, squeeze bottle of chocolate/caramel sauce, whipped topping, a box of cones, etc. This is never NOT a hit. Ideally grab a non-dairy option too like sorbet or sherbet.
- Ramen bar: not necessarily summer food, but a flat of basic ramen, and jars of hot sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds, rotisserie chicken for protein (if you have refrigeration), bag of bean sprouts, green onions can be snipped with scissors, etc.
- Any novelty food items at Costco or Sam's Club: yoghurt cups & a box of granola; chilled grapefruit cups; neat bobba drinks; a huge tub of pretzels; boxes of protein bars; electrolyte powder sleeves; ramen cups; Uncrustables; etc. If you have an oven, you have even more options from the freezer section.
- I also recently watched a dad order 40 hot dog combos for an entire hockey team, so you can also do that too at a cost of $2/staff.
- Take advantage of $1 cones/iced coffees at McDonald's, $0.99 flurries at Wendy's, Sonic Happy Hour or any summer fast food promotion in your area to take your management team or supervisors on a road trip out of the office for 2 hours. Do not bring the food back to work. Stay in the air conditioned restaurant or sit on a park bench to talk to them as people, not employees.
(Paper products not included - napkins, bowls, cups, straws, plastic cutlery, etc. )
If you have any great ideas to add, please hit reply and I'll be sure to include them in this week's YouTube Live chat!
Here's everything else going on in the aquatic industry this week (it's a shorter list since last week's newsletter was sent late).
Model Aquatic Health Code Cold-Water Venue Guidance
I have a video coming out soon regarding Alberta's Cold Plunge Guidance, so I may tackle this one next.
Broken glass forces draining, closure of Iowa pool in the July heat
Broken glass closes Minneapolis water park until further notice
‘Explosive diarrhea’ sickness linked to pools, splash pads spreading in Arizona
Please pay attention to any food advisories in your area right now if providing staff lunches - note that I did not suggest a salad or fruit bar!
Baltimore figured out the secret to a better public swimming pool
The Cost of a 'Code Brown' | Fecal incidents draining thousands from Bowling Green city pool
A Photo of Nolan Wells at a Pool Party Went Viral. It’s Not From July 4
ICYMI this is a terrible situation where a young man fatally drowned after going out boating with his friends on July 4th. The details and timeline before he was reported missing are cause for concern from the parents.
A timeline of Nolan Wells’ disappearance, death and the unfolding investigation
2 arrested on evidence-tampering charges after Texas teen's drowning
A similar, but completely different case from April.
Dead man found in North Texas community pool, officials say
"Frisco Lakes operates four community pools, three of which are open 24 hours a day, seven days per week from May 1 to October 31 to residents via key fob access."
To Beat the Heat, the Wealthy Are Building Snow Rooms
Have you seen any of these in your area yet?
For a $50+ class should you be wiping down the reformer?
If you join via SubStack, you can see the post for free, or else I've downloaded the PDF and uploaded it here. The abbreviated version is also available on Instagram. I understand this newsletter is about swimming pools, however I often say we can learn from any & all forms of fitness. Many aquatic professionals don't necessarily think about "customer service" as anything beyond simply providing an adequate experience in a safe environment, and sometimes I think that's part of our problem.
Man presumed drowned after tubing accident in B.C.
For some reason, people don't think about 'tubing' the same way they do swimming in open water.
The 'Thunder Run', Village Square Leisure Centre's iconic waterslide, set to be replaced
I really hope they bring the slide inside because I've heard it repeatedly freezes each winter in Calgary, when we can easily get temperatures plunging down to -40°C/-40°F.
Pittsburgh's new public pool swim guidelines are not a chaperone policy, mayor says
It's a 'miracle' that the Bay Area's 100-year-old swimming pool still stands
Ford worker fired over alleged cookie theft
You absolutely need to read this detailed account. Again, my goal is to talk about swimming pools in this newsletter, but this is very much a management lesson that everyone can learn from. Also, so many aquatic facilities are exclusively focused on being prepared for customers to have a diabetic emergency, and never consider how many staff may be recently diagnosed and new to managing blood sugar at work.
Thanks for reading!
Katie Crysdale
Lakeview Aquatic Consultants Ltd.
PS. You can access the audio version of last week's newsletter here.