While the Village of Westmont’s Complete Counts Committee uses such characters as vampires and super heroes as mascots in promoting the upcoming U.S Census, the work is serious.

Larry McIntyre, committee chairman, has been working to spread the word of the importance of the 2010 census in the community.

He stresses it is not just about counting people, but about money coming back to the village from state and federal revenue. This is the second time that McIntyre has spearheaded the census in the village.

“One of the biggest obstacles we have faced is that people are very guarded with their privacy,” he said. “The older forms were longer and contained more personal questions. These new forms are only 10 basic questions.”

The committee has already started working by setting up phone trees and getting names off of databases to spread the word in the village. Members are working with an Internet service called nixie.com, which they already use to alert residents of news in the community.

They are also bringing back Count Capita to help out.

“He was a character similar to the Count in Sesame Street, where he would appear at village events and would ‘count’ people,” McIntyre said. “We had a few people who would dress up in his costume back in 2000.”
While the Count did make an appearance at the Trick-or-Treat Trail for Halloween this year,

McIntyre said the committee is designing a super hero type figure as its mascot this time around, and is still looking at names for him, such as Captain Census or Census Man.
 
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In April, census forms will be delivered to every residence in the United States and Puerto Rico, according to the U.S. Census office. When you receive yours, just answer the 10 short questions and then mail the form back in the postage-paid envelope provided.

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“The key is to get the form back right away, otherwise, census takers will be knocking on your door to take a count,” McIntyre said. “They will only do this if you don’t mail the form back.”

Philosophy
“To quote Yoda from Star Wars, ‘There is do, or do not. There is no try.’”

Favorites
BOOKS Favorite authors are Charles Dickens and Douglas Adams
MOVIE “The Wizard of Oz”
MUSIC The Beatles and the Rolling Stones
TIDBIT McIntyre worked in movie and set production in more than a dozen films, including the blockbusters “Home Alone” and “Groundhog Day.”