Her Christmas Card Tells a Story

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When third grader Lucero Alvarez-Contreras imagines the Christmas story, she starts at the very beginning.

The student at Our Lady Queen of Angels School thinks it through step-by-step and puts herself into the scene.

“I wanted to draw what was in my mind. I imagined that some of the first people that knew he was being born were the shepherds,” she said.

Her depiction led to her selection—from among thousands of entries—as a winner in the 2013-2014 Christmas Artwork Contest of the Missionary Childhood Association.

Her artwork is on display at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., along with the 23 other winners through the Christmas season. The winning entries can also be found online at www.MCAKids.org.

“We were delighted and absolutely proud that Lucero was chosen,” said Joanne Walsh, principal of the kindergarten through eighth grade school in East Harlem.

“Lucero is a very quiet and reserved little girl. Art is her talent, and she expresses herself through art.”

On Dec. 5 an awards ceremony was held in Washington for all the art winners. In the true spirit of Christmas, an anonymous benefactor of the school paid for the entire family to attend the ceremony and tour our nation’s capital for three days.

Diana Marin, admissions and development associate, accompanied the family. She told CNY that Lucero did not stop writing in her journal on the trip.

All four of the children in the family attended Our Lady Queen of Angels—the eldest brother now attends Cardinal Hayes High School. The family was able to attend the school through the Children’s Scholarship Program.

At the ceremony, Lucero’s father, who had tears in his eyes, couldn’t have been prouder.

The original picture, now framed, hangs in the principal’s office in a place of prominence.