FORT SMITH — In 2008, 12-year-old Claire Kutchka decided to ask Catholic celebrities to send auction items for her parish’s annual carnival. Several celebrities responded, including actors Martin Sheen and Jennifer Lopez, television host Regis Philbin and basketball coach Lou Carnesecca, and their donations drew good bids.
The Kutchka family, including younger siblings Caroline, 11, Andrew, 8, and Leah, 6, were named “stewards of the week” at Sunday Mass at Christ the King Church in Fort Smith.
“Last year my family was talking about all the publicity for other religions and how famous Catholics were quietly living out their faith and beliefs,” Claire wrote for a Catholic Schools Week essay in January. “We wanted to find a way to let kids know who was Catholic and to let them know that it was possible to live out your dreams and still practice your Catholic faith.”
In 2009, Claire, daughter of Jay and Jane Ellen Kutchka, stepped up her stewardship, sending out 250 letters to bishops and religious orders all over the world to request silent auction items for the carnival, which will be held from 6-11 p.m., May 15-16 on the church grounds.
The campaign became a family enterprise, as her mother found addresses on the Internet and her grandfather printed the letters in his office. Her uncle, Army Lt. Col. Eric Udouj, who was serving in Iraq, sent six icons from Russia and four crosses from Singapore.
Her stewardship attracted the attention of Bishop Anthony B. Taylor even before he was ordained last June. During one of his trips from Oklahoma City to Little Rock, he stopped by Christ the King School to bring an auction item to Claire at school and blessed her class.
This year, her sixth-grade class has learned that bishops all over the world are kind and generous.
“Claire needs to write thank you notes because the bishops’ letters were so sweet,” Jane Ellen Kutchka said. “We are going to put them on display next to each item.”
Bishop Quinn Weitzel of the Diocese of Samoa-Pago Pago sent two wooden pen holders and a diocesan CD of songs. The Papal Agency for Humanitarian and Pastoral Support in New York sent hand-crafted cross pendants from Ethiopia. Bishop Patrick Dunn of New Zealand sent four holy picture cards of Mary and Jesus. Bishop Larry Silva of the Diocese of Honolulu sent two prints of “The Canonization of Damien” by Dietrich Varez.
One of the most precious items Claire received was Pope John Paul II’s white rosary in a Vatican bag. It was donated by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, the pope’s former personal secretary. The rosary was crushed in the mail, but Christ the King pastor Father Tom Elliott repaired the rosary, using as many of the original beads as possible.
“Every day the kids all ask Claire, ’What did you get today?’” Karen Mills, Christ the King development director, said.
Because Claire received 105 items, packages arrived almost daily at sixth-grade teacher Julie Stec’s classroom.
“One of the coolest things I got was the Stations of the Cross from Father (Joseph) Pallo (pastor, Immaculate Conception Church in Blytheville),” Claire said.
The large antique Stations of the Cross scroll, carved in wood with gold detailing, has a handle that can be turned to move a roller at the bottom of the crucifix from station to station.
“You never expect so many things to come,” Claire said.
Claire has received 27 items from U.S. bishops, 12 from overseas bishops and 36 from Benedictine abbeys and monasteries.
Some donors mailed several items. Brother Ephrem O’Bryan, OSB, of Subiaco Abbey, an accomplished calligrapher, donated eight matted calligraphy pieces, including two framed.
In difficult economic times, Claire’s stewardship is especially important, Mills said. The parish decided not to have a car raffle at its 2009 carnival because, for the first time in many years, their car raffle lost money in 2008. She said $50 raffle tickets are hard to sell in a tight economy.
Trish Showe, auction chairwoman, thinks that the religious items collected from all over the world will help to make up the difference at this year’s carnival.
As Claire leaves Christ the King School for Trinity Junior High School in August, Mills hopes she will continue to remember Christ the King.
“Stewardship’s in her blood,” Jane Ellen Kutchka said.
