The Gingerbread House Project allows the 3, 4 and 5 year old students in the Head Start program in Kankakee County to decorate gingerbread houses with frosting and candy at school during the Christmas season. Through this program, the students get to participate in a fun program that may not otherwise be available to them. The Gingerbread House Project has helped students in schools in Manteno, Bourbonnais, Herscher, Kankakee and Momence. They have worked with over 1,500 students since starting in 2012.
Please contact Patrick O’Brien at obrienpatrick46@gmail.com if you would like to assist with the project this year.
Suzy Hoevet of Kankakee started the project in 2012, after seeing her grandchildren have a wonderful experience decorating gingerbread houses at a cooking school in Texas. She and her husband Bob and daughter Nikki and a few volunteers started with one classroom that year. With the help of a lot of volunteers, they have since grown the program to work with over 1,500 kids at schools in Manteno, Bourbonnais, Herscher, Kankakee and Momence.
For Suzy and Bob, the Gingerbread House Project is a year-long effort, as they are regularly planning fundraising events and coordinating other ways to acquire the materials as efficiently as possible. The heavy lifting starts in November, when they begin unpacking each of the gingerbread houses and cookies individually and preparing them for the students. After collecting the candy, cereal, marshmallows and other decorating materials, they divide it all into small bags to be handed out to the students to decorate their gingerbread house or cookie. Bob and Suzy and their volunteers then deliver all of the materials to the respective schools and lead the activity in the respective classrooms. They have between 25 and 30 volunteers each year between the various school sites. Bob and Suzy make this program completely turn-key for the schools, so no school resources are spent on the project.
Every year we purchase hundreds of gingerbread houses and cookies, gallons of frosting, pounds of candy and boxes of cereal to decorate the houses along with plates, placemats, spreaders and other tools to help each student have a fun experience. We rely entirely on donations so any and all support is welcomed and appreciated.
To volunteer in the classroom with the children, please contact our volunteer coordinator. This is an all volunteer effort and we appreciate all the help we can get. The only requirement is that you like working with kids and don't mind getting frosting and candy on the clothes you wear to help the kids!