Division B - Printed Tools of Public Relations
Category 14 - Other
Hurricane Supply Kit Shopping List
Grace Resendez McCaffery, Escambia County Office of Public Information
Judges' Award
Research/Situation Analysis:
Each year Floridians are warned to plan for Atlantic hurricane season
that begins on June 1 and ends on November 30. Still recovering from
the costly devastating affects of Hurricane Ivan in 2004, Escambia
County sought for ways to motivate residents to prepare for the 2006
hurricane season. Post-hurricane community meetings gathered area
agencies that revealed that area residents, especially low-income
families, were unprepared for another catastrophe and lacked motivation
and resources to do so. To encourage residents to buy supplies for a
potential disaster, an inexpensive and convenient solution was
developed.
Objectives: To distribute 70,000 copies of the
Hurricane Supply Kit Shopping List locally through at least 20 major
grocery stores and utilize local media to include at least 6 radio
stations, a television station and a major newspaper to promote and
distribute and inexpensive guide to buy supplies for a “potential”
disaster by May 21.
Implementation: The Hurricane Supply Kit Shopping
List was designed to guide residents to prepare for the upcoming
hurricane season by buying supplies a little each week (for eleven
weeks) rather than all at once to avoid panic buying, empty store
shelves, potential price gouging and expensive bulk purchases that
residents with fixed or lower incomes might not afford, all while
offering helpful safety tips. Designing the “Shopping List” began with
listing items that are listed in most standard disaster supply kits.
Together with the county director of the Department of Public Safety,
the list was edited to exclude some unnecessary items and include other
helpful items. Once these items were identified, they were divided by
categories such as food, first aid items, tools, etc. which made up
eleven weekly shopping lists. Assuming that most people would probably
not follow the shopping list for the full eleven weeks, the lists were
then organized in order of importance, listing the most needed items
first. Items on each list were researched for price, verifying that
families could shop for or otherwise obtain the main necessities for as
little as $15 per week for a family of four. The items were listed as
check lists. Each weekly list also included a safety or preparation tip
that related to the items that were featured in each category. The
material was not dated, so that it cold be used at any time. The list
was printed in full color and on glossy paper to make it more
attractive. It was also designed to fold to wallet-size.
Just
before hurricane season began, the list was presented with a media kit
to members of the press that attended a hurricane drill, a simulation
of a category three hurricane, while members of the press were eager to
find ways to work with the county to help the community prepare for a
disaster. The media kit described the purpose of the list and gave
additional information about each week’s topic and category of supplies
and included 60-second PSAs for each week. It was explained to the
media that for this project to be a success, every participating media
outlet had to talk about the same topic simultaneously each week. The
press agreed!
Beginning two weeks before the first day of
hurricane season, and coinciding with the Florida Hurricane
Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday and National Hurricane Preparedness Week
(May 21-June 1), radio, television, print and Internet outlets urged
residents to obtain a “Shopping List” and begin shopping for hurricane
supplies. Shopping Lists were distributed at supermarkets, grocery
stores, hardware stores, county offices, social service agencies,
churches and community organizational meetings. Store managers and
office managers were happy to involve their staff in the process. The
demand for more lists required another print order.
Evaluation: About 100,000 copies (42% over our
goal) of the “Shopping List” were distributed in at least 37 local
stores. A PDF version was available on the county website and on the
websites of participating media outlets. The list was translated into
Spanish and published twice (14,000 copies) in the local Spanish
language newspaper. The New York Times mentioned the shopping list in a
report about hurricane preparedness on May 31, 2006. Nine local radio
stations followed the weekly topics and reminded listeners to prepare
for hurricane season and urged them to obtain a copy of the list at
area stores. One local television station ran weekly spots on their
morning, noon and evening shows for eleven weeks that featured
information about the weekly topics and make the shopping list
available for download on their website. Local organizations that
discussed the hurricane season and preparation also distributed the
list at meetings and in information packets. Those organizations
include the Gulf Coast African American Chamber of Commerce, The United
Way, Be Ready Alliance Coordinating for Emergencies (BRACE), Florida
Department of Health, and many churches. The list continues to be
distributed at area events such as expos, festivals and trade shows.
Neighboring counties have inquired about publishing a shopping list for
their communities.
Budget: The cost of this project was $4,340.00 of
140,000 copies for printing (4.3¢ per distributed copy, not including
web distributions). This project was not included in any annual county
department budget in 2006, so the cost of developing the project had to
remain minimal in order to “sell” the concept for approval. All of the
design was done in-house and the printers agreed to print the shopping
list at cost. A county employee distributed the shopping list to area
stores in two days and many agencies picked up boxes of the list from
the county to distribute them at their events. The overall return on
our investment is intangible.