By Liz Hamak for The Central Minnesota Catholic
Ethan Tolifson is the winner of the local Art on the Margins contest with the theme “Caring for Creation.” The contest was hosted by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud and sponsored by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the anti-poverty program of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
A fifth grader at Christ the King School in Browerville, Ethan drew an image of God holding the world in the palm of his hand.
“While all the submissions were incredible, I chose Ethan’s piece, ‘God’s Hand’ as the winner for this year right away,” said Liz Hamak, the social concerns intern for the diocese who oversaw the contest. “I like to think of God as a loving Creator, who is always holding up and sustaining the world. God invites us to do the same by caring for the world around us in big and small ways.”
Ethan was honored at an award ceremony May 9 at Christ the King School. His parents, grandma, twin sister and pastor Father Mitchell Bechtold attended, as well as the student body and staff.
The goal of the contest is “to get young minds thinking about Catholic Social Teaching and issues of poverty and care for our neighbors in fun and creative ways, as well as to offer an opportunity for teachers and schools in our diocese to have a reason to talk about these themes as a class or school,” said Kateri Mancini, director of social concerns for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud and diocesan director of CCHD.