2004 Essay Contest Winners were Meredith Nichter (first place), Jay Morgan (second place), and Kevin Dedmon (third place). Here are the essays:

Keep Shelby Beautiful Writing Contest
Essay by: Meredith Nichter

Dear Mayor Alexander,
There is a major litter problem right here in Shelby. This problem affects everyone who comes into our town and those who live here. I think the problem goes deeper than just litter. The bigger problem is that people don’t care about keeping things nice and respecting their own town. The way to solve this problem is to show others how big of a problem it is and get them to care.

We could have a city-wide cleanup day every few months or so. Schools, youth groups, organizations and citizens could get together and clean up trash all over our city. Every group can decide what area to work on, and work together to make that area sparkle. If every group all over the city does that to many different areas, our whole city will be shining again in no time!
Everyone would benefit from a city-wide cleanup day. People can get together with their friends and groups and have fun while they’re doing a gigantic favor for their community. The people who live in the areas that are being cleaned up will realize that litter doesn’t just affect them. They will see that the whole city DOES care, and so should they. There’s a good chance that they will participate in the next cleanup day. They will want to help others the way others helped them. It also benefits Shelby because, as you said, the crime rate will decrease if there’s not trash all over the place.

Criminals know what the people who live in a house with litter covering their lawn don’t care about their things, because they don’t respect them. If people would respect their belongings, themselves, others and their community, Shelby would be a safer place.

Shelby is our home. But right now, it’s a dump. NO one wants to live in a dump. The appearance of our town can change if everyone works together and takes actions to show others that we do care. Let’s live up to Shelby’s motto, “A Pleasant Place for Living” beginning with making Shelby look nicer. Then it will be a more pleasant place for everyone to live.

Sincerely,
Meredith Nichter

Keep Shelby Beautiful Writing Contest
Essay by: Jay Morgan

Dear Mayor Alexander,
I have recently been informed that you are starting to get significantly worried about the littering levels of this beautiful city of Shelby. This can be a very difficult problem to solve, but I believe that I have an affordable and simple solution. Mr. Alexander, you have questions, I have answers.

First of all, the main reason that people litter, in my eyes, is because people think that nothing can happen to them. Criminals rarely ever get brought to justice when littering because us citizens are not on the watch. My advice to you is to start an advertisement campaign. Radio and television ads are effective, and so are ads in the yellow pages. I think that most people are truly concerned, but we just cannot remember to lookout for crimes. This also shows that you and the city board care, and you want the citizens of this town to keep it beautiful while serving justice. Another way to keep the citizens watching is to award the ones who inform the police department of the crime. For instance, if the criminal was fined one hundred dollars, let the “spotter” get twenty percent of that, or twenty dollars. This lets your board still earn money, punish the evil and reward the good.

Not only that, but I am afraid that our litter bugs do not care if they get fined or not. I read outside of Tony’s Ice Cream a few years ago that littering was being fined for twelve dollars. That’s it? People do not care it they have to spend twelve dollars or not. Prices may have gone up but not THAT much. Fines must be five hundred dollars or more in order for people to not want to litter. In fact, people should not want to litter anyway, but money is all that some care about. Another important factor to remember is to keep your prices PUBLIC. If no one knows that fines are five hundred dollars for littering, no one will quit! People may even think that fines are only twelve dollars. To make my point more clear, put yourself in their shoes. If you littered and got fined twelve dollars, would you really feel bad, as if you had been deprived of a serious amount of your income, like it should?

No, I doubt that you would. Now, put yourself in the new criminals place, being fined five hundred dollars for littering. Now you probably think that you have been punished a great deal for deliberately breaking the law like criminals were meant to feel. Please think about this!

All in all, I hope that I have effectively shared my ideas to you on how to reduce littering levels in this “city of pleasant living”, Shelby. I believe that if you would simply start an anti-littering campaign, reward those who report littering and raise the fines significantly for breaking the laws related to littering, you will drastically reduce the littering levels of this beautiful town, Shelby.

Sincerely,
Jay Morgan

Keep Shelby Beautiful Writing Contest
Essay by: Kevin Dedmon

Dear Mayor Alexander,
Lately I have noticed we have lots of litter in our city. My father and I pick up the trash down our road and the very next day their will be trash all over again. This is becoming a real issue and I think we need to do something about it. As you said in you speech Wednesday, the more litter in an area makes crime rate go up, and I don’t want the “City of Pleasant Living” to be known as a run down crime area. After debating about the issue, I feel that the best solution would be to raise consequences on littering and have a community trash pick-up once a month.

As I said, I think we need to higher the consequences for those that litter. Instead of just making them pay a fine, I think they should have to spend one week in jail and pick up trash three times a week for one year. After they see how hard it is to pick up trash, I think they will have a new found respect for keeping Shelby clean. Another way we could improve our area is to once a month have a community trash pick-up. If everyone in our great community came out and just helped a little bit, it wouldn’t be long before Shelby is sparkling clean again.

Not only am I saying this is the best, I have reasons to prove it. As I said earlier, all the people who litter probably will stop littering and the people who usually don’t litter won’t even think about it for fear of the consequences. Also, I think that if everyone in Shelby were to just pick up one or two pieces of trash, they would be surprised by the results. If we all would just get together and help, I think our city would be beautiful enough to become the capital of North Carolina.

Finally, I really hope you like my solutions because I do think they could make a difference in Shelby. This is why I am recommending it to you and please realize they are for the benefit of our wonderful Shelby. I hope one day these events will go into place and stop littering for good.

Sincerely,
Kevin Dedmon