Serra Club and Office of Vocations announce winner of creativity contest

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
March 22, 2007

Serra Club of Siouxland once again teamed up with the Vocation Office of the Diocese of Sioux City to offer the Vocations Creativity Contest and the winners are featured in this issue of The Globe.

According to Jolene Billings, a member of Serra Club of Siouxland and one of the organizers of the contest, they continue to sponsor this contest as it raises awareness about vocations in hundreds of grade school students throughout the diocese.

Contest materials and information relating to Vocations Awareness Week were sent out to all Catholic schools and all parish or cluster religious education programs last fall. Those programs then had the option to participate in the contest and did so during Vocations Awareness Week, Jan. 7-13.

Local programs judged the entries and then sent one entry per classroom to the Serrans for the diocesan level contest. This year there were 263 entries from 16 of the 22 Catholic schools and 18 of 78 parish/cluster religious education programs.

"We just deal with the winners, but when you think that every winner's entry represents a classroom full of kids. It's extremely valuable in raising awareness," noted Toby Berg. "You never know, it might just take a single word for a child to respond to God's call."

While the number of entries judged by the Serrans at the diocesan level was 263, in reality thousands of students participate in the contest.

"By asking the students to do this contest, it allows teachers to promote vocations to the priesthood and religious life," noted Billings. "It gets the kids thinking about a religious vocation. Sometimes with the contest, they have to interview a priest or sister and that allows the students to get to know them on a more human level. It shows the students that they have the ability to be just like them."

Berg added that for the kindergarten students, they were instructed to draw a picture of their baptism and show who was there. She noted that this particular assignment encouraged communication and faith conversations between the children and their own parents.

The theme of this year's contest was Baptized for Service, which was based on the National Vocations Awareness Week theme. Many of the assignments for the local Serra Club's contest were based on ideas that were in materials from the national vocation's office. However, the women explained that they fine-tuned the age-appropriate assignments with the input of schoolteachers. One of the popular assignments has been the one for the fifth graders that entails creating a T-shirt that encourages others to answer the call from God.

First place winners receive $30 and an invitation to participate in a celebration dinner with Bishop R. Walker Nickless this Saturday. Second place winners receive $20 and a congratulatory letter. Third place winners receive $10 and a congratulatory letter.