Carthage Photo of the Month — Official Rules (October 2026)
Sponsor. Carthage Proud, an independent hometown shop (“we”, “us”).
No purchase necessary. A purchase does not increase your chance of winning. Void where prohibited.
Eligibility. Open to legal residents of the United States who are 18 or older at the time of entry. Our employees and their households are not eligible.
Entry period. October 1, 2026 at 12:00 AM CDT to October 31, 2026 at 11:59 PM CDT.
How to enter. Upload one original photo per entry at https://ourtownheritage.com (up to the per-person limit shown on the entry form). All entry and voting happens on our website. You never have to share, tag or like anything on Facebook or Instagram to enter or vote.
Your photo. You must have taken the photo yourself, and anyone recognisable in it must have agreed to it being shared. We review every entry before it appears publicly and may decline any entry.
License. By entering you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to use, reproduce and display your photo, with credit to the name you provide, on our websites, social media, advertising and merchandise. You keep ownership of your photo.
Voting. Approved entries can receive public votes (one vote per entry per device per day). We may disregard votes we believe are automated or fraudulent.
How winners are chosen. After the entry period we take the top 5 entries by public vote, and our judges choose the winner(s) from them based on local character, photo quality and creativity. Votes alone do not decide the winner.
Prize. One winner: $25, issued as store credit for the Carthage shop on https://ourtownheritage.com (a single-use code; any unused balance on that order lapses; no cash value). This amount is fixed for this round. If a winning photo is suitable, we may also offer it as a limited design for 30 days, credited to the photographer.
Announcement and contact. Winners are announced on the Carthage page of our website and on our Carthage Facebook Page by first name, last initial and entry code. We contact winners using the email or Facebook name given at entry.
Claiming. Winners have 14 days from our first message to claim the prize using their private claim link and entry code. If a prize is not claimed in time, we may choose an alternate winner. Winners give a mailing address to receive their merch, and may also receive a congratulations card from our family of brands (Be Thoughtful / Mr. Handled).
Privacy. We use entrant information only to run this contest, contact winners and, if you opted in, send you updates. We never sell or share entrant information.
General. We may cancel or modify the contest if fraud, technical failure or other causes beyond our control affect it. Winners are responsible for any taxes. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Meta/Facebook/Instagram.
Amendments
Amended 2026-10-18: from this date, an entry is a photo with an optional caption and year, and you enter by ticking “I agree to the Contest Rules”. By entering from this date you confirm that you took the photo or have permission from the person who took it or owns it, that it isn’t copied from a newspaper, studio, book or website, that you are 18 or older, and that anyone recognisable in it agreed to it being shared. You give us permission to show it with your caption and credit (your account setting: first name and last initial, full name, or “A neighbor”) on our websites and social media for this contest and in the Carthage Through the Years archive. We never make prints, products or merchandise from a photo unless we ask the photographer first and they say yes: winners are asked when they claim their prize, and a yes means credit and 10% of each sale as store credit. We email every entrant once at their account email when the winners are announced. Entries made before this date keep the permissions chosen when they were entered.
Rules for October 2026. These rules were fixed when the round opened; any later change is a dated amendment above.