Three area youth win art contest

Christen Hocevar (left) and Kaylee Martinez won first and second place, respectively, for the Missionary Childhood Association Christmas Art Contest. (NTC photo/Jayme Shedenhelm)

FORT WORTH — Nearly 150 young artists submitted drawings to the diocese for the annual Missionary Childhood Association Christmas Art Contest. Judges faced the difficult task of selecting three winners.

Christen Hocevar and Kaylee Martinez, seventh-grade students at St. George Catholic School in Fort Worth, received their respective first and second place awards at a recent school assembly.

Christen won $100 for her finely-detailed illustration of a nativity scene. Kaylee, who used colored pencils to draw the Magi seeing the star of Bethlehem from afar, was awarded $75.

Paola Ramirez, 11, of Crowley, won the third-place prize of $50 with a colorful painting of the Three Wise Men.

She received her check recently in front of her fifth-grade classmates at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Arlington.

“I got inspired to draw this because the Three Wise Men are one of my favorite types of people. They were showing that Jesus was the king of all. It just inspired me,” Paola said.

“To win this contest actually makes me kind of proud,” she said. The association’s competition was the first art contest she has entered.

Father Tom Craig, head of the Diocesan Office of Pontifical Missions, said that contests such as the Missionary Childhood Association’s are a way to increase young people’s appreciation for missions.

“I think it brings about an awareness of missions, and how children can help children in missions throughout the world,” he said. “It’s a simple way of using their own talents to express their faith.

“The contest also raises awareness of the simple things they can do that also can bring about a change in faith, change in them, and help them to continue to grow in faith and, hopefully, as they grow older, they will take a more active stance in evangelization and spreading the good news.”

The entries have been submitted to the National Missionary Childhood Association Artwork Contest, which selects 24 winners from across the country to be displayed at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., during Advent and Christmas. The artwork of two grand prize winners will be reproduced as the organization’s Christmas cards.

The Diocese of Fort Worth will sponsor a Missionary Childhood Association Christmas Artwork Contest during December 2018 through January 2019.

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NTC staff contributed to this report.