About

Cedar Rapids has suffered a disaster in the billions and only received funding in the millions is the universal community message put together by a team of local marketing, communication and media professionals. The committee, the Cedar Rapids Public Relations (CRPR) group, began meeting February 2009 on a volunteer basis to help address one of the primary post-flood communication challenges.  “National media attention is critical after a disaster, they can help create widespread awareness about the calamity our community has experienced and is still facing while balancing the delicate message that Cedar Rapids is doing all it can, but is still in desperate need of additional assistance,” states Catie Kriewald, Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce and committee member.  

After three months of working with multiple community entities to ensure accuracy and coordination in messaging and statistics, the group is ready to launch Cedar Rapids Flood Story, a national media campaign.  Committee members have spent countless volunteer hours creating a community wide flood message, listing viable story leads, designing an interactive website, producing a collaborative video and crafting a compelling media kit.  

The Cedar Rapids Flood Story media kits, which were mailed out to targeted media sources on Friday, May 8, featured donated Quaker Oats tubes, a paper copy of the media kit, a flash drive containing all necessary information and milk and cookies. The committee has been working to get their project to national media in advance of the one year anniversary.  Committee member Quinn Pettifer with the Cedar Rapids Downtown District says, “June 2009 marks the anniversary of the fifth largest national disaster to public infrastructure in the U.S.  It is a milestone locally and nationally and we need to capitalize on this date for added exposure and coverage, which in turn creates national awareness of our plight.”  

The group will be presenting the launch of Cedar Rapids Flood Story on Wednesday, May 13, to the public and elected officials during the City Council’s 5:30 p.m. meeting and the Linn County Board of Supervisors weekly 9 a.m. meeting.

Contributors to the National Media Campaign include: the City of Cedar Rapids, Linn County, Cedar Rapids Community School District, Linn County Non Profit Resource Center, Arts and Culture Community, Cedar Rapids Downtown District, Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, Priority One, Corridor Recovery Group, and the Cedar Rapids Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Quaker Oats, deNovo Marketing, Marketing and Communication Strategies, KGAN, CorridorRecovery.org , Metro Studios, Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, Cedar Rapids Downtown District and Cedar Rapids Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Corridor Business Journal, Gazette Communications, KCRG-TV9, Iowa Public Radio and KGAN Channel 2.