Interactive vehicle takes off from Times Square.
NEW YORK—To increase awareness and encourage participation in the 2010 census exercise, the US Census Bureau left Times Square last Jan 8 launching a cross-country interactive tour.
The tour, dubbed Portrait of America Road Tour, will be part of the largest civic outreach and awareness campaign in the nation’s history. In the next four months, it will stop and exhibit at more than 800 events in several cities nationwide.
"The Road Tour seeks to educate and empower every person living across our country to take part and participate in the 2010 Census," US Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said.
The interactive vehicle that left Times Square will be present at several local festivals and major sporting events such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association Final Four and the Super Bowl.
There will be other regional launch events include vehicles departing from national landmarks across the nation. These include the USS Constitution in Boston , Independence Mall in Philadelphia , the Gateway Arch in St. Louis , Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco .
"Attendees at road tour events will learn about the census, how it affects their local communities and even share their personal stories about why the census is important to them at interactive kiosks and exhibits," Groves also said.
More than three million people will have the opportunity to share their photos and stories, explaining why the census will make a difference in their communities, the bureau said. This constantly changing "portrait of America " will be captured during all Road Tour events and will live online at its website 2010census.gov, it added.
The US Census Bureau is mandated to undertake a survey every ten years to determine the population of the country. Results are used to allocate Congressional seats, electoral votes and government funding.
With the road tour, it will attempt to motivate the country’s growing and increasingly diverse population to complete and mail back 10-question census forms when they arrive in mailboxes March 15-17, the bureau said in its statement.
Meanwhile, the Portrait of America Road Tour was designed to minimize its impact on the environment, with its 223 metric ton carbon footprint being offset through carbon credit donations by Carbonfund.org.
Other national partners associated with the tour include Best Buy, Google, Sprint, 3M, MTV, Telemundo, Black Entertainment Television, Country Music Television, Sesame Street and Valero Energy.(AJPress)
( Published January 8, 2009 in Asian Journal New York p. 1 )
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