Shari Sheppard, a student at Lewis Frasier Middle School, was the winner of the city of Hinesville’s “If I Were Mayor …” essay contest.
Mayor James Thomas received 100 essays from sixth-grade students in Snelson-Golden Middle School and Lewis Frasier Middle School English classes. The contest was held during the city’s Georgia Cities Week celebration in April, and winners were selected May 15. Each student was invited to city hall to meet Thomas and learn what it is like to be mayor for a day.
During her visit with the mayor June 2, Sheppard said she feels Hinesville is a great place to live, loves her school and thought more people should get involved in their community.
Thomas Walker wrote the second-place essay, and Taleisha McCutcheon earned third place. Both are students at Snelson-Golden Middle School.
Common themes in the essays were education, jobs, crime and parks or recreation facilities. Winning essays are on www.cityofhinesville.org in the Hinesville Happenings section.
Here is Sheppard’s winning essay:

“If I Were Mayor, I Would…”
If I were mayor, I would work with city officials and citizens to help make our city great. I would ask for citizens to become active members of our community. If a city becomes safer and grows, then the citizens will be happier and feel safe. Growing will bring more visitors and businesses to our community.
Also, I would help residences, the school board, businesses and city departments work together for the good of the community. I would apply for grants to improve parks and playgrounds, widen and secure roads, and make buildings safer. I would work with the city council to make more parks for the kids, better salaries for the citizens who work in the city, and try to help keep the city clean by making the citizens recycle more and litter less.
Being mayor would give me an opportunity to get to know the citizens and the community. As mayor, I would be involved in getting to know the concerns of the citizens. I would have town-hall meetings so that citizens can tell me their ideas and what concerns them.
As a new mayor, it would be best for me to make my city better at the start of my term. This would be a benefit to the citizens because they would have time to makes changes. This would make helping the community easier for the next mayor that is voted into office, too.
So if I were mayor, I would help the city by asking more citizens to become more involved in the community. I would make laws and rules that would help our community grow and become a safer community. I would work with the city council to make more playgrounds and parks in the city, make salaries better for citizens and help keep our city clean. I would apply for grants, bring business to our city and bring people to our city to help pay for these changes.
This is what I would do as mayor.