In fourth grade, students wrote postcards to the mayor of Saint Petersburg identifying problems they'd like him to fix in our community. Many of them were published in our print edition. Here are a couple more stand-outs from the project.

 

 

Dear Mayor Foster,

I see people beating dogs and cats and all kinds of animals, and that’s not right. Animals should be treated fairly just like us.

I have seen people pick up glass bottles or sticks and throw them at dogs in my neighborhood. The dogs start crying for help, and I feel sad for them. People seem to only be torturing these animals because they’ve seen other people do it. But if they were that dog, they would be mad.

We need more police going through the neighborhood catching people in this act. When people hurt animals they should have to go to jail.

These people don’t care about themselves or other living things. Please can you stop this. I don’t want the animals to die.

Sincerely,

Semira Witchard, 4^th grade
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Dear Mayor Foster,

I think you need to help homeless people get jobs. When I am with my mother I see homeless people sitting on the ground begging for money outside of the grocery store. This makes me sad. They need a job, so they can stop begging for money.

I think you should build a place for homeless people where there are people there who can talk to them about how to get a job and train them on how to get a job. If you do this, I hope that the homeless people will know how to work hard and be able to get a house.

Please help the homeless people learn how to not be homeless. I think it’s important for all people to be able to work and have a job.

Sincerely,

Anthony Nelson, fourth grade