JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Grow Missouri has tapped an interesting and old-fashioned method for getting their message out there. The conservative, Rex Sinquefield-funded group is renting a blimp through mid-November to accompany the 100 Great Ideas for Missouri initiative. The blimp, expected to land in Jefferson City late this afternoon, says “Create a Great State” and “#growmo.” Grow Missouri treasurer and spokesman Aaron Willard said that the blimp is a “significant investment,” but Grow Missouri plans to get “maximum utility” from it.
The blimp will fly over the University of Missouri – Columbia football game on Saturday and possibly the Cardinals game in St. Louis afterward. There will be an open event Sunday, more information to follow. For now, curious followers can keep an eye on the blimp through Grow Missouri’s twitter, @GrowMissouri, and through #growmissouri.
“We are going to try and coincide different meetings that we are having with the blimp’s schedule so that it also goes over highly populated areas where we know there are going to be events going on,” Grow Missouri treasurer Aaron Willard told The Missouri Times.
In addition to the blimp’s purpose in attracting attention to the effort led by Speaker-elect John Diehl (R-Town and County), Grow Missouri will use the blimp to gain information about agriculture, conservation, and transportation. The blimp can move slowly and fly safely very low to the ground, making it an ideal tool to collect aerial information.
“I am especially interested in how we can address our infrastructure needs,” Aaron Willard, Grow Missouri treasurer, said. “The skyship is very large, but it can fly very low and very slow, which gives a unique perspective from an aerial view. We really want to use it to try to get additional information and footage.”
Willard specifically mentioned wanting to acquire more information on transportation bottlenecks, washouts and flooding, weak spots, and drought.
“We can collect that information to have it so that decision makers have it at their disposal,” Willard said.
In addition to attracting attention to the campaign and gathering information from the state, Willard hopes the blimp will be attractive to industries that can use it as a tool. Willard said he is more than open to setting up meetings within industries, such as energy, who have tools that could be utilized with the blimp.
“It is probably going to get a lot of attention because it is pretty unique,” Willard said. “We are going to be having a lot of meetings around the state with business groups, with community leaders and grassroots activists, to come up with ideas. In coordination with that, we want to go through and identify a large number of voters, as well as the basics of supporting different candidates and ballot issues, as well.”
Rachael Herndon was the editor at The Missouri Times and also produced This Week in Missouri Politics, published Missouri Times Magazine, and co-hosted the #MoLeg podcast. She joined The Missouri Times in 2014, returning to political reporting after working as a campaign and legislative staffer.
Rachael studied at the University of Missouri – Columbia. She lives in Jefferson City with her husband, Brandon, and their two children.
