Students, community groups rally for Census Day

Car horns blared in support as about 20 teenagers chanted "U.S. Census 2010. Count your family, count your friends" outside the Uniondale Public Library Thursday.

"I filled out mine," a driver yelled as he passed by the students, who sported Census 2010 T-shirts.

The students, most from Uniondale and a few from Hempstead, were volunteering at the Uniondale Community Council's census outreach event, which marked Census Day Thursday - the day the U.S. Census Bureau reminds people to turn in their census forms.

"Now that I've seen this, I'm going home to fill it out," said Mark Bonnett, 41, a Best Buy customer service representative from Hempstead.

"We hope we're getting our message out," said Susan Kern, vice president of the Uniondale Community Council.

The Uniondale event and another census awareness program at the Brentwood Public Library Thursday, hosted by state Sen. Brian X. Foley, (D-Blue Point), underscored civic and government leaders' desire to get as complete a census count as possible.

"We need to make sure every constituent is counted," Foley said in an interview, because "it's crucial for funding," alluding to $400 billion in federal aid annually distributed to states and local governments based on population counts.

"We risk missing out on this federal funding. We could [also] lose political representation," Foley said to about 30 community, government, business and civic leaders in Brentwood.

"If everyone is counted, it means more money for schools and everything," said Kafele Medley, 16, a Uniondale High School junior, who held up a "Be Counted" placard in Uniondale.

Foley said he was concerned that the percentages of people in Brentwood and Central Islip who had mailed in their census forms averaged only 36 percent on Wednesday, far below the 52 percent national rate recorded that day. Nassau and Suffolk counties' rate was 49 percent that day, but as of Thursday had climbed to 53 percent and 52 percent, respectively.Echoing Foley's appeal for help in promoting the census, Patricia Valle, the Census Bureau's assistant regional census manager for Long Island, said in Brentwood: "We need your support and enthusiasm so the public has no fear" about the census.

That there was still a need for census awareness came in stark relief in Uniondale. Gary Gomes, 53, a retired landscaper living in a Uniondale rooming house, said of the census: "I don't know what it's about."