All of the proceeds from the event will go toward Habitat for Humanity’s goal of raising $70,000 to build a home for a family in the Bloomington community.
Additionally, participants can decorate cookies, listen to live music, tell Santa what they want for Christmas, and buy handcrafted scarves and concessions, said Director of Fundraising Christina Zerfas.
Habitat for Humanity Fundraising Board member Marlo Owczarzak said the project was developed through brainstorming at the board meetings and that the original idea was to do a small gingerbread house competition, but the event continued to grow.
“It was one of those 3 a.m. ideas,” sophomore law and public policy major Alyssa Julian said. “My original idea was to create the largest in the country, but we could never pull off something that size, so we decided to make the largest one in Indiana.”
Sophomore Fundraising Board member Jessica Kim said that in order to raise enough money for their cause, they needed to minimize costs to the extreme. She said the event could not be possible without Baked! Of Bloomington’s sponsorship.
“To say that this was a perfect opportunity for us is an understatement,” said Jeremy Ness, one of the managing partners of Baked! Of Bloomington. “We immediately realized that an event like this was a great chance for us to help out the local community, spread the word about Baked! and bring the staff together for some much-needed team ?building.”
Ness said they will be using more than 1,400 pounds of food to make all of the gingerbread.
Zerfas said initially the team struggled with making the idea feasible and getting the gingerbread donated, but as soon as the advertising launched, they faced the issue of not having enough candy for the turnout.
“Having such a positive response has been the best problem we could ask for,” she said. “The beautiful thing about Habitat for Humanity is that no matter how much you give, you always receive more in return.”
Owczarzak said she hopes the event invites the IU student body to participate in more Habitat activities in the future. If students are interested in helping with the construction or destruction of the house, they should post on the organization’s Facebook event.
