Thrift essay contests were a regular part of the original National Thrift Week celebrations, so, in honor of that great tradition, we're running our own contests.

National Thrift Week was sponsored primarily by the Young Men's Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.). By the 1920s, what was known as the peak celebrations of National Thrift Week, the Y.M.C.A. had lined up a broad array of cosponsors, ranging from the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts to the American Red Cross and the U.S. Postal Service, totaling some fifty partnering organizations. If National Thrift Week were reinstated today, who do you think should sponsor it and why?

Submit your ideas on our contact form. Please keep entries limited to 100 words or less. The deadline for this contest is January 23, 2010.

The winning entry will receive a $100 National Savings Bond.

Please note that all entrants grant Bring Back Thrift Week and its agents an unlimited, worldwide, perpetual, unconditional, gratis license and right to publish, broadcast, reproduce, store, copy, post, edit, modify, publicly display, adapt, exhibit, and/or otherwise use or reuse (without limitation as to when or to the number of times used) the Submission (in each case, as submitted or as edited/modified in any way by the Sponsor, in its sole discretion) in any way, in any and all media, without limitation, without consideration to the entrant, and without notice, review or approval from entrant or any other party.