Quadruplets get boost from PR firm

? They won’t be able to take it out alone for 16 years, but already their car has a snappy nickname: the Quadmobile. Their pictures and vital statistics are available on their Web site. And Peyton, Parker, Camden and Christian also have their own logo.

These are the Tetrick Quads, two sets of identical twins born together on April 5: a one-in-25-million rarity. All boys.

And a local public relations firm hired by the parents is trying to make them all the rage. Their logo the imprints of four tiny feet encircling a star is plastered on T-shirts, buttons, press packets and a Web site, www.born4theusa.com.

“It’s an all-American family,” said Mark Lottridge, chairman of Lottridge Advertising, which devised the advertising campaign.

Going gaga over multiples often results in gifts and other help from neighbors and strangers who are sympathetic to the financial hardship and stress of having so many mouths to feed and futures to prepare for.

But Patrick and Christina Tetrick didn’t leave things to chance. They signed on with Lottridge before the April 5 births to help solicit donations and coordinate media interviews. The pregnancy forced Christina to leave her job as a construction engineer, and Patrick took a pay cut at his job with the military, so the family’s income has been slashed by 60 percent. They had just purchased a two-bedroom home when they found out they were having four babies a surprise because they hadn’t taken fertility drugs.

“We’re just trying to meet our bills,” Christina Tetrick said the other day, between feeding and changing Peyton and Parker at home.

Most of the response has been positive, Lottridge said. There have been 50,000 hits on the Web site from countries around the globe. The family has gotten free use of an eight-passenger Chevrolet Venture, dubbed the Quadmobile on the Web site, from a local dealership. The Pump House Diner gave the Tetricks two free meals a month for a year. A local radio station sponsored the Great American Diaper Drive. The neighborhood Wal-Mart is accepting donations.

Lottridge said the firm didn’t get paid unless there was product endorsements or contracts.

“It’s a story of a patriotic family that needs help, and there’s no shame in asking for it,” Lottridge said.