Open Letter from the Founder

This upcoming week

will most likely see the end of the Maine State Police Investigation into the Center Lovell Inn Essay Contest. We’ve known since our first contact with Sgt. Johnston that this case needs to get to the federal level for us to have any real shot at getting answers. State police can not enforce federal regulations; only federal agencies can enforce those and investigate federal violations.

So, how do we get the FTC and/or the FBI to open a case?

It won’t be easy, with thousands of other complaints that need to be sifted through. The first step is to file the FTC and FBI reports. The reports take less than 10 minutes to complete and this will get our foot in the door with the FTC and FBI. AFTER you’ve submitted those reports, the key to getting our case noticed is to KEEP THIS CASE IN THE MEDIA! There will be publicity when the State’s investigation ends. Some reporters -especially those local to Maine- will try to convince the public that the closure of the State’s case means that no laws have been broken. To that we must say:

WE KNOW BETTER.

We know that the Maine State Police investigation was a big step, but only the first one! We know that getting the story to be the big papers was a huge victory, but not the last one we’ll need to get our voices heard. The majority of the public still don’t know that any of this is happening! There are thousands of contestants out there that have NO CLUE that the contest is being investigated, or that our group exists. There’s still work to do to get the word out there and help others find our group!

Melissa Bikulcius made a great point: we’re all in this boat now because we believe in our ability to express ourselves through our writing. Janice Sage may or may not have read our essays, but she’s hearing us now.

Please send emails to your local news papers and TV stations! Let them know that this story is a HUGE milestone event for these kinds of contests and will likely be looked back on as a first step towards better state regulations and processes for regulating contests and combatting deceptive advertising.

Please post links to any local or national news contacts that you contact! I will compile them all into a list for convenience. Meet Copy/Paste, he’s your new best friend, folks! Our goal for this upcoming week is a simple one: stay motivated, and

SPREAD THIS STORY EVERYWHERE!!!

Join the Center Lovell Contest Fair Practices Commission here.