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Gingerbread women to the rescue

Editor's Note: This story was written by NNSL staff contributor Laura Whittle.

 

Yellowknife’s own, all women, non- corporate team, The Northern Gingerbread (Wo)men, have entered themselves into the first Engineers Canada #FeatsOfGingerbread competition.

The competition aims to rally the engineering community during the holiday season, while also raising funds for a registered charity of each team’s choice.

photo courtesy of Jennie Rausch
The Northern Gingerbread (wo)men, from left, Amy Wilkinson, Delia Chesworth, Jennie Rausch, Alexandra Giroux and Kelly McLaughlin with their gingerbread creation they called “Christmas at the Treeline”.

To compete, teams had to raise $500 for their selected charity, build a gingerbread structure and then submit photographs and videos of their creation onto Engineer Canada’s website for public voting prior to Nov. 15.

The Northern Gingerbread (Wo)men said it was an easy decision for them to pick Food Rescue as their charity of choice.

“Food Rescue Yellowknife has been supporting our community for many years now,” said team member Jennie Rausch. “It’s great to see them diverting food that might otherwise be wasted or thrown out, into nutritious meals for school lunch programs, seniors facilities, homeless shelters, and transient populations.”

With nine entries from across the country, the women hope to receive the most online votes and have Engineers Canada match their fundraising efforts for Food Rescue Yellowknife. Engineers Canada will match up to $10,000 worth of donations collected by the winning team.

Food rescue Yellowknife has been salvaging food from restaurants and grocery stores and converting them into nutritious meals for over 10 years. The charity organization relies on part time volunteers between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., to meet with local grocers and restaurant owners that have leftover stock. According to the organizations website, they have distributed over 1,050,000 kilograms of food since starting the charity organization in 2008.

The team, who met through Girl Guides of Canada, is made up of two engineers, a biologist, lawyer and a teacher. The two engineers of the group were happy to have help from their teammates of different backgrounds.

“Delia and I are the engineers, so once we all decided to enter we left the creative part of the design up to the other ladies. We measured everything up to be scaled accurately and our display is 100 per cent edible, which makes it different than the other entries as well,” said team member Alexandra Giroux.

The gingerbread women decided that to gain better exposure they would reach out to local public spaces to see if they would allow them to display their creation.

“We were so pleased that the Center Square Mall staff were generous enough to let us display everything for free. The Yellowknife airport also offered, but they didn’t have anywhere sheltered enough for us to place things- we can’t thank everyone enough for the support we’ve been receiving,” said Rausch.

The submitted photographs and videos went live on social media and Engineers Canada’s website, on Dec. 3, and will be open for public voting until Dec. 17.

The gingerbread creation, titled Christmas at the Treeline, will be available to view at the Center Square Mall in downtown Yellowknife until Dec. 16.

By press time the team had raised more than $3,000.