Advocacy group accepts entries for baking fundraiser

Applications due Nov. 13, found on ATVP website; event, drink costs $30

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COURTESY OF CHRISTINE WALL

The gingerbread competition will take place at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 4 in the Great Room of the 1912 Center in Moscow. Tickets cost $30 and include a complimentary drink ticket.

MINDY MALONE, Evergreen copy chief

The holidays are a time for giving, and a local business plans to use gingerbread houses for that reason this season.

Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse will hold its seventh annual Home for the Holidays gingerbread fundraiser this December.

The event includes a no-host bar, snacks and music, said ATVP Executive Director Christine Wall. The main event is the gingerbread house silent auction. Attendees are encouraged to place bids throughout the night on the houses they like, she said.

Houses are submitted by individuals or teams that signed up to be bakers. The fundraiser doubles as a gingerbread house competition, Wall said. A local judging panel evaluates the houses and presents the judges’ award. Attendees decide the winner of the peoples’ award.

All proceeds from the event support ATVP. ATVP’s mission is to create a safe community – free from domestic violence, sexual assault and abuse, and stalking – through education and prevention, Wall said.

“It does bring people together in a unified cause,” Wall said. “It takes all of us to support nonviolence in our community.”

ATVP’s cause drew in some local gingerbread bakers, like Jeannine Burke, who used to be a crime victims advocate. Now, she said she supports ATVP to continue her work and help those in need. This will be her third year submitting a gingerbread house.

“When you’re creating one of these, you just focus in and use it as a way to slow down the world around you,” Burke said. “It’s an art more than anything.”

No experience is required to bake a gingerbread house for the fundraiser.

“Anyone can get together and give it a try,” Wall said. “It’s fun — challenging, but fun.”

Applications to be a baker for this year’s fundraiser can be found on the ATVP website. Bakers can be individuals or teams, with no limit on size. Applications are due Nov. 13.

The event will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 4 in the Great Room of the 1912 Center in Moscow. Tickets cost $30 and include a complimentary drink ticket. They can be purchased online or at the door.