- Who: The NDSU Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA)
- What: Members created a public service announcement, featuring well-known people from the Fargo-Moorhead community who are encouraging people to "Be Counted."
- Why: "We wanted to give people a reason to care about the census," said Kelsey Miller, PRSSA president and a senior majoring in advertising from Champlin, Minn. "Sometimes people don't understand how much government funding we get and how much they are worth to North Dakota."
- The message: NDSU President Richard A. Hanson, Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker, Miss North Dakota USA Taylor Kearns and Fargo City Commissioner Tim Mahoney are just a few people appearing in the video who are spreading the word that filling out the U.S. Census questionnaire helps provide things like permanent flood protection.
- A lesson for the creators: Members of NDSU's PRSSA chapter learned that each person who fills out their census questionnaire is worth $1,000 of funding per year to the state of North Dakota.
- Taking it to the streets: The NDSU team recently helped the City of Fargo with the 2010 Census Portrait of America Road Tour, where they aired their video. Staff members from the City of Fargo preferred the NDSU public service announcement to theirs and have decided to show the video in some of their advertising spots.
Contact: Kelsey Miller at kelsey.miller.1@ndsu.edu.
