A 1983 neighborhood contest with about 50 entries gave Tega Cay its motto and pine tree logo.
In the spring of that year, the Tega Tradewinds community newsletter invited residents to submit ideas for a slogan and logo for the newly incorporated city. Tega Cay had become a city less than a year earlier, incorporating on July 4, 1982, with a population of 2,182, according to the Tega Cay Historical Society.
City council member Kathryn "Kitty" Updike organized the contest. Jim Camann, Chris Roush and Lew Hicks also helped run it, according to the August 1983 Tradewinds.
The newsletter's April 1983 issue put out the call, urging anyone "artistic" or "imaginative" to enter and promising prizes at the city's July 4 birthday celebration.
About 50 entries came in.
June Birch won the motto category with three words that stuck: "The Good Life." Lee Hammond designed the winning logo, a tall pine tree inside a circle flanked by two triangular shapes, with "Tega Cay, S.C." printed beneath it. The August 1983 Tradewinds announced both winners and placed Hammond's design in the upper right corner of its front-page masthead.
A small presentation copy of the winning design was printed as a keepsake and given to the winner at Tega Cay's first anniversary celebration on July 4, 1983, according to the Historical Society's profile of Updike.
Residents wanted the new branding on their chests almost immediately. The August 1983 Tradewinds noted that people were already asking for T-shirts before the first batch arrived. Some clubs, including the ladies bridge club and the Lioness club, may have had a few left. By October 1983, the shirts finally landed at the Pro Shop and the clubhouse front office. The price: $5, in small and large sizes only.
The motto outlasted the newsletter. The Tradewinds masthead still read "The Good Life in Tega Cay" in its August 2000 and May 2003 issues. The December 1987 issue showed the pine tree logo above the motto in quotation marks. The phrase and the pine tree remain part of the city's identity.
Scott Miller, founder of the Tega Cay Historical Society and a city resident since 2005, published the research on Saturday, Oct. 10, drawing on original print editions of the Tradewinds held in the Tega Cay History Archive. The Historical Society is asking anyone who entered the 1983 contest, knows the families of June Birch or Lee Hammond, or still owns one of the original $5 T-shirts to share photos or memories through the Tega Cay History Facebook Group or at TegaCayHistory.com.
