Golden Thread Contest

WINNERS and RUNNERS-UP

Age 19-30 Category

WINNER

Ariella Kimmel

Read her piece, "Of Faith and Fairies" here.

RUNNERS-UP

Marlena Loughheed

Read her piece, "A Love Louder than Noise" here.

Ainsley Munro

Read her piece, "God Took Me Outside" here.

Darryn Oldford

Read his piece, "The Active Heart of Faith" here.

Claire Brown

Read her piece, "Morning's Holy Light" here.

Age 14-18 Category

WINNER

Kit Schwarz

Read her piece, "From Tolerance to Respect" here.

RUNNERS-UP

Danielle Cuevas

Read her piece, "Faith in the Family" here.

Josiah Forde

Read his piece, "Not So Ordinary People" here.

Faith Mallon

Read her piece, "A Beautiful Blessing: My Brother" here.

Samira Mohammadi

Read her piece, "A Surprising Journey" here.

The deadline for contest submissions was September 25, 2017. 

PURPOSE OF PRIZE

The Thread of 1000 Stories (now Voices from the Crowd) launched the Golden Thread Contest in 2017, which sought to gather stories from younger Canadians - their stories of faith past, present, and future - to help celebrate our country's 150th birthday. 

Every submission, text or video, to the Golden Thread Contest was considered for publishing on our Thread of 1000 Stories website. Additionally, winners were chosen for prizes of up to $5000. 

The thread our judges looked for in the texts and videos submitted was the role of faith in inspiring Canadians. Or mobilizing Canadians. Or helping Canadians to overcome struggles that afflict them. Or simply letting  Canadians live out their daily lives in response to the religious sense that is part of being human. 

Why stories of faith? Because we believe, as Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau once said, "Faith is the golden thread that binds all of us together." The Thread of 1000 Stories was an initiative of the think tank Cardus, home of the Faith in Canada 150 project. 

The goal of the Thread was to gather in one place as many stories about faith in common life as we could during Canada's 150th birthday year. It continues as Voices from the Crowd over at Convivium, Cardus's in-house news source and digital magazine.

The Golden Thread contest was the chance for young Canadians to add to that store of stories, and maybe come away with a little gold of their own. 

PRIZE DETAILS

There were two age categories for submissions:

1. Age 14-18
   1. $1000 to the winner of either a text or video story
   2. Four $100 gift cards for the runners-up in either text or video
2. Age 19-30
   1. $5000 to the overall winner of either a text or video story
   2. Four $250 gift cards for the runners-up in text or video
3. All publishable submissions were added to our Thread of 1000 Stories initiative.
4. Winners were announced on November 6, 2017. 

JUDGES

The Judges were: Dr. Imam Hamid Slimi, Anna-Liza Kozma, Judy Csillag, Natalie Morrill, Terry LeBlanc, Rabbi Dr. Laura Duhan-Kaplan, and Peter Menzies.

Questions can be sent to info@faithincanada150.ca