Up for the Count
Census 2010 is hitting the highway
If you’re going to reach the people, you have to hit the road. That’s the whole idea behind the 2010 Census Portrait of America Road Tour.
The Census Bureau calls the tour the largest civic outreach and awareness campaign in U.S. history. The lead vehicle is a pick-up truck hauling a 46-foot trailer that serves as an interactive tool on the importance of participating in the census. It has been parked at major events throughout the country, including the Super Bowl.
Visitors to the kiosks in the trailer tell their own stories, which are shared with the public online and replayed in the national vehicle as well as in 12 regional Road Tour rigs. These cargo vans pull 14-foot trailers and have been hitting church functions, local sporting events and fairs.
Census forms begin arriving in mailboxes in Mid-March and are due April 1. After that the tour is dedicated to informing people that census workers will begin making house calls to those who haven’t returned their forms.
By the end, the campaign will have educated, entertained and enlightened at more than 800 events, and it’s expected the trailers will have covered 150,000 miles during a combined 1,547 days on the road.
“We have a very big goal,” says Samantha O’Neil, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau. “That’s to reach every single person in America.”
