Carmen Gobble-Barger displays her winning drawing that will be featured as a Holy Childhood Association Christmas card this year. She is a sixth-grader at Cathedral School in Springfield. For the second year in a row, a student from the Springfield diocese has been chosen a winner in the Holy Childhood Association Christmas Artwork Contest. Carmen Gobble-Barger, a student at Cathedral School in Springfield, was one of 24 students chosen nationwide to have her artwork reproduced as a 2007 Holy Childhood Association Christmas card. Ten honorable mentions were also chosen. The 2006-2007 Christmas artwork contest was open to all Catholic school, parish school of religion, and home school students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Carmen drew and colored her picture as an assignment from her art teacher Rae Lipsky, who said that she was pleased when she found out one of her students was recognized.
Carmen, who was in fifth grade when she completed the picture, said shortly before Christmas break last December, her art teacher instructed them to "do something that had to do with Christmas." Following her teacher's directions, she drew the baby awake in his makeshift cradle with his mother standing close by. Both Mary and Jesus are smiling, while a star shines brightly over the infant's haloed head.
Ester Gobble-Barger, Carmen's mother, said she naturally is proud of her daughter's award. "Carmen likes to sit around the house and draw," she said. "She was very excited to win and I was happy for her."
"I think my mom is going to be sending out a lot of these as Christmas cards," Carmen added.
Vicki Compton, director of the Office for the Missions, will present Carmen with a certificate at the annual Mission Mass, which will be held Wednesday, Oct. 3 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Additionally, Carmen will receive several complementary boxes of the HCA Christmas cards and some other small prizes.
Original winning designs will also be on display at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Carmen and her family has been invited to a special Mass for winners and their families in December. Msgr. John E. Kozar, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, will be the main celebrant of the Mass at the National Shrine.
Orders for the Holy Childhood Christmas cards will be taken within the next few weeks. They can be ordered through schools, diocesan mission offices and the HCA national office for $10 for a box of 24 cards. All proceeds collected from the sale of the cards are distributed directly to the local churches of Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands and remote regions of Latin America, to support the church's pastoral and evangelizing work among children.
This is the third year that winning artwork was reproduced as cards. For many years artwork was produced as Christmas seals. The top-rated artwork will also be featured on HCA's national Web site for children at www.hcakids.org and will be available as e-greetings for Advent and Christmas at www.worldmissions-catholicchurch.org.