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March 08. 2010 6:00AM

A group of Brandon Valley youngsters want you to be counted this year.

This is the year that the U.S. Census Bureau will be taking a “portrait” of the entire country as it conducts the once-a-decade census. Seven middle school-aged Destination ImagiNation students are doing their part locally to remind Brandon residents of the importance of being counted.

They solicited ideas from city and school leaders earlier this year, from which their idea was born.

“This will certainly bring it to the public’s eye a little more,” said Dennis Olson, city finance officer. Included in the city’s February water bill will be a flier the group created reminding residents to complete the 2010 Census. It will be sent to over 6,000 households in Brandon.

Brandon Mayor Larry Beesley is impressed with the group’s help in promoting the census.

“It’s a one in 10 year opportunity – it’s a big thing,” he said, “because there’s a lot of funding that goes with the census.”

“(Filling out the census) can help your community,” added fifth grader Nicole Priola, one of the seven DI team members. She said the census is also beneficial for the school district. “If you have a kid who is going to school, (school administrators) will know how many kids to put in a classroom.”

Priola said that’s how Superintendent Dave Pappone explained it to them when they met with him.

But the flier isn’t the group’s only endeavor.

This DI team of seven has been meeting twice weekly in preparation for the March 6 DI regional competition, where they’ll present a program on their Project Outreach endeavor. If the team scores enough points at that level, they’ll advance to the state competition, where they’ll compete for a chance to move on to the Global Finals, which will be held in Tennessee this May. This same team of seven made it as far as state last year.

“Destination ImagiNation is where groups around the world get together and compete with skits, music and other different things … there’s so many creative things to do,” explained fifth grader Peter Schumacher.

Creativity is a large part of the DI program.

Dawson Kremlacek authored a song, “The Census Rap,” which the group has incorporated in to their presentation. They also created a chant, “International Help.”
“We had to do this because in Project Outreach you have to incorporate music,” Kremlacek said, “so I made ‘The Census Rap.’ ”

Fifth grader Emily Kluin enjoys working on the group’s scrapbook the most.
“I’m very artistic and I like scrapbooking and making all the pages,” Kluin said.
The team’s scrapbook accounts for 60 percent of their score.

Working as a team has also been a learning experience for the group.

“I think what we’ve all learned is that helping people is a little more advanced than scooping snow or finding a cat or dog that’s run away,” said Elizabeth Schumacher, a sixth grader.

In addition to promoting the census, the group visited residents at Autumn View Apartments and presented them with gift baskets filled with an assortment of treats and a note explaining who they are.

“They’ve done some nice things with the outreach project,” said the team’s adult co-manager Sheila Schumacher.

Priola said she chose to get involved with DI for a variety of reasons.

“You get to interact with kids, which will help you out when you get older and have to figure out stuff,” she said. “And you make a lot of new friends.”

Elizabeth Schumacher said DI has made her more responsible.
“Destination ImagiNation helps you work together and makes you realize that every opinion matters, not just your own,” adds Sheila Schumacher. “Everybody has their own ideas, and eventually they come together on a decision. As DI parents, that’s we love about it, because you could never place a kid in that situation.”

Co-managing the team with Sheila Shumacher is Lori Magelky. Team members include Ryan Williams, Peter Shumacher, Sammi Magelky, Elizabeth Schumacher, Kremlacek, Priola and Kluin.