NEWS ALERT

January 12, 2000

For further information about the Census 2000 Bulletins, contact J. Paul Wyatt of the Census Bureau's Public Information Office on 301-457-3052 (fax: 301-457-3670; e-mail: <pwyatt@census.gov>).

On Feb. 15, a fleet of 12 road tour vehicles (RTVs), adorned with colorful census graphics, will pull out of a dozen cities across the country, to begin a 60-day odyssey, including more than 400 stops, to promote participation in Census 2000.

Called the Census 2000 Road Tour, "How America Knows What America Needs," the RTVs will carry five kiosk-like, portable exhibits in multiple languages and boxes of balloons, lapel pins, buttons, pens and pencils, and refrigerator magnets with census logos on them.

Contract drivers, two to a vehicle, will be in charge of logistics and take turns at the wheel. They will crisscross the Census Bureau's 12 regions, stopping along the way at schools and community centers, county fairs and ethnic events. The "on-the-road" itineraries will snake through numerous hard-to-enumerate areas, as well as 125 major media markets.

Teams of media specialists will precede the RTVs to each stop in advance cars, coordinating media coverage with Census Bureau regional staff. The RTVs are slated to appear at events as glamorous as the Grammy Music Awards in Los Angeles Feb. 23 and New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade March 17 and as low-key as Riverside, Calif.'s, County Fair and Date Festival Feb. 24 and the New England Flower Show March 18.

Negotiations are under way with the National Football League to post a Census 2000 RTV at the Superbowl on Jan. 30 and with the NCAA for the Final Four Basketball Tournament in Indianapolis April 2-3. An RTV also will join a funeral procession "to bury the undercount," which will wend its way through Asheville, N.C., on Census Day, April 1. It will be led by the Hillcrest High Majorettes and Marching Band. Other events where road-tour vehicles may appear are the Kumba Festival in San Diego Feb. 18, several Major League Baseball opening days and powwows and other activities on Indian reservations.

The RTVs will be met at some stops by high-ranking Census Bureau officials from the regions and headquarters, including Director Kenneth Prewitt. Michigan Gov. John Engler will "christen" the Census 2000 vehicle stationed in the Detroit region by smashing a bottle of Michigan wine across its hood.

The RTVs will be equipped with laptop computers, cellphones and pagers for daily communications with regional command posts. They also will have digital video cameras for pictures and video records, which may be put on the Internet, and loudspeaker systems.

"The road tour pulls all the Census 2000 promotional efforts together," said Paula Coupe, the Census Bureau's project manager. "We will be out there at the same time as all the radio and television ads are going on and this will give more mileage, so to speak, to the ad campaign. And, finally, it puts a face on the census. Hey America, we're like you, not a bunch of faceless bureaucrats back in Washington."