MT. VERNON — Area leaders are stepping up their game and will be at Mt. Vernon grocery stores Friday to get the word out about filling out the census and the census’ importance.

In what is called the “Get Out the Count” event, celebrity baggers will be handing out census information at Kroger from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and there will be an informational table set up on the grocery side of Walmart from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Mt. Vernon’s census liaison Lori Ulrich says civic leaders understand the importance of this census and she hopes they can help spread the word to the public.

This effort is in addition to an incentive the city council passed to provide each household that does their census online and brings their confirmation to city hall a $10 Visa gift card.