EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. — 30 days—that's how long people have to complete the U.S. Census.
Monroe County officials are pushing residents who haven't completed it, to do so. The county says for each nonresponse, residents stand to miss out on thousands of dollars in federal funding for vital things like emergency services and childhood education.
"it's funny because no one thinks about the census, you know? It only comes around every ten years," said Nate Staruch, Complete Count Committee for the Census. "But every single day, whether it's the pavement on the streets, fixing a bridge, providing educational resources for our high schools and for our school districts, it really touches on every aspect of life."
Typically, the census stops counting in July, however, because of the pandemic, the deadline has been extended to the end of September.
This year the county is hoping to get a 60 percent response rate for filling out the census online, by phone, or by mail.
A decade ago, only 55.6 percent of the residents in Monroe County filled it out.
County departments, nonprofit organizations, and community partners worked together to formulate a plan to raise awareness for the census.
Now one of the easiest ways to reach people is through social media, so the county partnered with design students here at ESU to create ads for the census.
"We talked to the county, we went to some of the meetings with them, we kind of finally figured out a style. It was a good opportunity to learn more of a design process like how to get from nothing to a final project," said Anna Vergara, a senior at East Stroudsburg University.
If you haven't filled out the census and plan to, click here.