As a parent and a homeowner I know how important it is to have a stable home and the role a house plays in creating an environment where children can thrive. I am blessed and grateful to have a home and two healthy children so when the opportunity arose to get involved with Habitat For Humanity and help others achieve their dream of owning a home I was happy to do so.
Habitat Victoria has an annual event called "The Great Gingerbread Build" that it’s been doing for the last four years. The event is held at the Laurel Point Inn with over 40 gingerbread homes being built by professionals and amateurs to raise funds for Habitat Victoria.
A Tweet to Arms
I put a call, er tweet, out to #YYJ tweeps to see who had the time, skills and inclination to help build a gingerbread house that would go on display at the Laurel Point Inn. A number of people came forward (thanks everyone) and in the end, due to schedules etc the crew was @Toots11 @FootButterGuy @DustyPupVI and moi @b_WEST with a little help from my daughter (not yet on Twitter). We fell into the "amateur" category.
So the crew met to plan our strategy and we decided that our gingerbread house would in fact be a "Twingerbread" house. Meaning that we would design a gingerbread treehouse that twitter could reside in. We also created a @Twingerbread twitter account.
Here are a few pics of the initial design and development. For more photos click here.
The Build
I can’t say that I’ve ever built a gingerbread house before let alone one that is 3′ tall and sits on a 2′ X 2′ wooden platform. It was a great experience working with my new found twitter friends. I was/am, in awe of their skills and passion for their local community. @Toots11 baked all the gingerbread and her and @FootButterGuy built the platform. @DustyPupVI came up with some great/creative finds including bird nest branches and little cell phones. Turns out I have a knack for applying icing sugar, which tastes pretty good too. We got her built over 3 or 4 meetings and had fun trying to fit it into Janice’s truck without any of the fragile bits falling off.
To celebrate we held a #Tweetup down at the Laurel Point and toured the more than 40 amazing gingerbread creations. Thanks to all that attended and supported Habitat Victoria.
Twitter Auction
Twingerbread and all the other creations have been on display since November 23rd, but alas today we have to pick-up Twingerbread and find her a new home (thanks for that Cathy). We decided that rather than let it collect dust somewhere or get eaten by ginger-termites, we would hold an auction and donate the proceeds to Habitat Victoria.
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General Description
Built on a sturdy piece of Laurel branch from Janice’s backyard, this solid, single room home comes complete with two nests and a walk out to a deck with ocean views. Inclusions: a twitter fail whale, several tweeters and a toy mobile phone pre-installed with the @twingerbread account. Land size: 2′ x 2′ beautifully landscaped with mature evergreens. Brand new roof includes rice paper screens shot of twitter account featuring many of @Rod_Phillips tweets.
Come to think of it Rod, this would look quite nice at a Liquor Plus location 😉 See you on the 20th…
1 thought on “Twingerbread for Humanity”
Update: At the Social Media Club event on January 20th we held a live auction for the Twingerbread house. Bidding was fierce. A huge thank you to the winning bidder Rumon Carter who took the Twingerbread house home with him and helped us raise $100 for Habitat Victoria.
Can’t wait til next year’s "Great Gingerbread Build" to do it all over again. Are you in?