Christmas cards were sold featuring the winning entries from the third annual Christmas card design art contest sponsored by Upper Downriver Right to Life.  The first place winner in the high school age group was Katelyn Lesko, a ninth grader at Roosevelt High School and a member of Our Lady of the Scapular parish.  She received a $100 check and 10 Christmas cards of her design.  The second place winner was Anastasia Evich, a home-schooled ninth grader who received 10 cards made with her design.  The winner in the 5-8 category was Maya Mehall (see picture below), a seventh grader from John Paul II Catholic School in Lincoln Park.  She received a $50 check.

Second place was awarded to Heliena Layton, a 5th grader from St. Pius Parish in Southgate.  Each first and second place winner received 10 Christmas cards made from their art work.  All of the winning art designs incorporated the nativity story of the birth of Jesus in a unique manner.

Katelyn Lesko explained that she had learned in the art class that a smiling Madonna could express the joyous and serene moments with her newborn son.  She was ready to compose her entry on a day with no school.  After gathering her art paper, pencils and pastels, she noticed a picture on the dresser of her grandmother holding her newborn granddaughter only months before she died.  It was a wonderful image of the precious beginning and end of life.  The composition of that photograph became the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus with his tiny fingers wrapped around the finger of His mother.