Despite the National Football League’s players being locked out by the owners, the Indianapolis Colts’ “Make It Personal” tour is still in full swing as it made a stop at the Kosciusko County Community Fair Tuesday in Warsaw. In a campaign to promote the state’s NFL squad, the Colts organization is in its ninth summer of touring Indiana with players, cheerleaders, an interactive bus and many more activities for children. “It’s really a grassroots campaign,” Indianapolis Colts Marketing Assistant Kyle Sommers said. “Instead of putting up billboards, we choose this as a way to interact with the fans.” Beginning on June 1, the tour makes 24 stops, and will be in Fair Oaks Friday, followed by Muncie on Monday and Versailles on Tuesday before travelling to its final destination on July 22, the Elkhart County 4-H Fair in Goshen. “It will be nice, a little bit,” Sommers said about the tour drawing to a close. Ordinarily, the tour includes players and cheerleaders, who give autographs and take pictures, but with the lockout taking place, that has changed a bit this year. The cheerleaders are still on hand, but instead of current players, the tour has starting offensive lineman Tarik Glenn from the Colts’ Super Bowl XLI winning team, as well as Joe Staysniak, signing autographs. “The turnouts have still been really good,” Sommers said. “It’s really comparable to the past tours.” With or without current players making the trip, the Colts seem determined to get out into Indiana communities, letting everyone feel as if they’re getting close to the team. “We want to give back to the fans,” Sommers said. “We want to do what we can to come to the fans, because we realize not everybody can make it to Lucas Oil Stadium.”
