Making Handwashing Memorable: What Cartoon Faucets Can Teach Children

A reminder to wash your hands does not have to sound like another instruction. For artist and designer Matthew Caliman, it can come from a superhero, a football player, or a pirate, each imagined as a colorful faucet with a message children can carry into their daily routines.

In an interview with Infection Control Today^®, (ICT^®) Caliman discussed the Cleanup Crew, his handwashing education project, and how his background in advertising and creating educational characters shaped its approach. The idea grew out of personal loss during COVID-19 and a desire to give children something practical to do.

“My family, like so many others, suffered a loss during COVID, and I wanted to take some kind of action,” he said. “I did a lot of reflecting at that time, and asked myself, "What is there that I can do to help combat this, even in a small way?”

Caliman had previously helped create a financial literacy program for children, developing characters that appeared in lessons, comic books, and an animated series. That experience gave him a starting point for communicating another message to a young audience. He considered the habits his family had adopted and focused on keeping hands clean.

“I'm a big believer in little things having a big effect,” he told ICT. “If simple things or simple habits are undertaken by enough of us, they can have a big effect.”

Faucets offered a familiar visual connection to the behavior he wanted to encourage. Rather than continually expanding the cast, he settled on a core group, leaving room for other characters to visit. His goal was to create figures that could represent different people without excluding anyone.

The program pairs those characters with encouragement and activities. A sticker set features 4 main faucet characters and can be placed near a bathroom sink, where children encounter the reminders while they have an opportunity to act.

“I combined active engagement and positive reinforcement, primarily in a sticker set that could be placed in kids' bathrooms near the sink,” Caliman said.

An original song, sung to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” accompanies the stickers. Caliman described it as a way to reinforce technique and the duration of handwashing. Games, jokes, comics, seasonal content, and recurring features provide additional opportunities to revisit the message without presenting it in the same format each time.

For infection preventionists (IPs), school nurses, and other educators, the interview raises a practical communication question: How can a lesson remain part of a child’s routine after an appointment or classroom activity ends? Caliman wants materials to travel home with families and remain useful through repeated engagement.

“I think that resources should have a life that extends beyond the clinic and beyond the classroom and extends into the home where they can continue to spread their message,” he said. “I'm…bringing it to a kids' level. We all try to model behavior for the young people in our lives. I think that goes both ways. I think if parents see their kids embracing [hand hygiene], maybe that'll be a little trickle up, and they'll embrace the habit too.”

He also described adapting materials, like stickers and posters, for classroom visits, health fairs, and medical appointments. Organizations can incorporate their own messaging, and seasonal changes can give familiar characters something new to say. His emphasis is on resources that evolve with their audience.

The characters also introduce children to people working in health care. Caliman has created content recognizing school nurses and IPs, including a pirate character saluting IPs from a ship’s deck. The conversation also explored possible recognition of environmental services and sterile processing professionals.

Caliman hopes children’s enthusiasm might influence adults, too. That remains an aspiration, rather than a demonstrated outcome. The interview did not include evaluation data showing changes in handwashing behavior or infection rates.

Looking ahead, he envisions books, animation, toys, and additional messages. Ideas discussed during the interview included environmental cleaning, vaccination, and antimicrobial stewardship, although these were possibilities rather than established offerings.

The most effective way to stay updated on Caliman’s work is by visiting his Instagram account. He’s also happy to offer a personalized Cleanup Crew service for your school or facility.

For now, the project’s central aim is to make a familiar health message inviting enough to revisit. Its broader lesson for educators is to consider where reminders appear, how children participate, and whether families have reasons to return to the material. In Caliman’s vision, the characters offer children an approachable invitation to practice a habit and share it with the adults around them at home and at school.