The Village of Oak Park is planning a rally for the 2010 Census next Tuesday evening, March 9, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
This and other rallies are part of a nationwide National Census Road Tour crisscrossing the country from now until April 1, when the actual counting begins. April Fools Day might not seem the most auspicious day to set things in motion, but we know you won’t hold that against our beloved government.
Oak Park Village Clerk Teresa Powell is leading the effort, and points out that as unsexy as all this might sound, it’s important because if your town gets undercounted, it also gets underfunded, since federal money is distributed based on data gathered in this every-10-year event. It also enables us to find out a lot more about who we are.
The rally next Tuesday, which takes place at Oak Park Village Hall, 123 Madison St., will include live video, streamed from the Census Web site, of interviews with local residents. There will also be a quiz show, hosted by the Census Count Crusader (in full costume – one can only imagine), plus prizes.
Census forms will arrive in your mailbox sometime around mid-March. If you don’t return it by the end of April, a census taker will pay a visit to make sure you’re counted.
For the sake of our more paranoid, anti-government brethren, this is not an effort to put you on a list for deportation to a concentration camp. The information is used “for statistical purposes only, and is strictly confidential.”
The questionnaire contains 10 questions “intended to gather information about how we live as a nation, our diversity, education, housing and jobs.”
For more information on the Census 2010 rally in Oak Park, call 708-358-5670 or e-mail clerk@oak-park.us.
