Hearing about vaccine outreach initiatives taking place in Medicine Hat, I interviewed AHS employees to learn more about how community paramedics stepped up to assist in offering vaccine to diverse populations. The story caught the attention of CHAT news. Setting up a media opportunity, they shared the story, celebrating AHS employees and spreading the word to the community.
After spotting a photo on social media, sharing a photo of two paramedics with their patient on her last trip to a palliative care home, I reached out to find out how, and why, the EMTs provided this memorable experience. The heartwarming story of healthcare workers going above and beyond to care for the patient, and her family, received significant engagement with over 300 comments on the internal staff post.
Not shy in front of a camera, I was excited to step in for a colleague to host a segment of AHS Health Matters, a monthly episode on Shaw TV highlighting public health education and engagement opportunities.
One story can be re-told in many ways, assisting in reaching a variety of audiences from a multitude of channels. In Spring 2021, the story of Sonny Day Rider was originally written by a freelance writer, I edited from 800 words to 500 words, to only a few lines to create a narrative video, supported by staff photographer Austin Knibb, featured story, and social posts including a deck of social stories. Content will be re-purposed by Marketing for future promotions.
Abbondànza, the Faculty of Fine Arts’ annual scholarship fundraiser, would have hosted the 20th celebration in 2021. Unable to celebrate this momentous occasion in person, a virtual communications campaign was created including media release, supporting stories and testimonials, newspaper ad, websites, videos, a multi-channel social media campaign, e-newsletter campaign for VIP supporters, and hard-copy personal deliveries to event founders.
At the onset of the pandemic, I was given the heartwarming task of finding the good stories. I learned that the talented staff in the Costume Shop in the Faculty of Fine Arts were using donated fabric to sew scrubs and bags for healthcare workers. The story was picked up by media throughout Southern Alberta, leading the family of the fabric donor back to the Fine Arts. A follow-up story shared that the connection led to the granddaughter of the fabric donor, now a nurse, to receive a pair of scrubs sewn from her grandmother’s fabric. A segment of the story was picked up by Reader’s Digest.
Working with Airau Marketing to create a video highlighting the research of Fine Arts faculty member Mary Kavanagh, we were able to utilize interview footage to create multiple pieces for reputation and recruitment purposes. Alongside the videos were written stories, media releases with targeted distribution, and social media campaigns. The original story was picked up as far away as New Mexico. A student profile on Tyler Muzzin is also being utilized for recruitment marketing.
While nobody likes a crisis, I do enjoy the thrill of crisis communications. When the world began to fall apart in March 2020 I volunteered for the crisis communications team, serving on the University of Lethbridge emergency response team, primarily involved in monitoring and responding to social media inquiries as the campus quickly closed and students, staff and faculty shifted to a virtual environment. I also wrote an emergency PR statement for a local business hit by a COVID outbreak as an independent communications consultant.
When an Indigenous art student reported that their public art installation had been vandalized, I saw the opportunity to bring the community together to help rebuild it. A news release to local media put the call out and the community came out in droves, rebuilding the artwork on the coulee-side next to Fort Whoop Up in half an hour.