“What would St. Francis be doing in the world today?”
That was the topic of a recent annual essay contest for eighth graders at St. Hedwig Catholic School in Los Alamitos.
Sarah Visser, an eighth-grade teacher, supervised the essay writing contest and submitted 60 essays from St. Hedwig students to the local St. Maximilian Kolbe Secular Franciscan Fraternity. The organization sponsors the essay contest in an effort to interact with youth.
Although all students wrote well, the essay of Niko Tuliau stood out as being “very well thought-out, inspiring and articulate.”
The award was presented during the final awards ceremony, with the eighth-grade students and their parents in attendance Niko Tuliau received the prizes of $25 and a statue of St. Francis for his winning essay.
The winning essay concluded with this statement: “If he [St. Francis] were here today he would encourage us to live a life of simplicity, show us how to give comfort to the sick and needy, help us answer a call from Christ, and help us solve all of our problems whether they are big or small.”