Gingerbread house sets out tasty path to Okanagan homeownership

Winning the Habitat for Humanity gingerbread house-building competition was emotional for the Okanagan family hoping to one day live in one of the Habitat houses in Lake Country.

Shelley Bowolin and her daughter Grace reconstructed one of the Habitat for Humanity Okanagan houses from Lake Country in gingerbread form and, in turn, won the People’s Choice Award for the 2022 Jingle Bell Build.

It was the third year of the gingerbread house-building competition and winning for their tasty, tiny build was emotional for the family hoping to one day live in one of the Lake Country houses.

“It brings tears to my eyes – we’ve been to the site, worked on the site and we’re really anxious to step in and do some work on the house,” Shelley said.

“It’s going to be an amazing experience for us – not only to have a home but to be part of a community is a good part of it as well.”

Other winners announced Thursday were the Ivan and Melaney families, as well as Cohesion Land and Design and Artistic Awning in the Team Category.

More than 100 entries were submitted, raising more than $17,000 which is another big step towards getting four families into homes.

But there’s still a long way to go.

“We’re going to be doing things like this – we’re going to be out in the community, working with partners like Re/Max and doing what we can to raise another $1.7 million because that’s what we estimate the cost will be for our four-plex,” said Danielle Smith, resource development manager for Habitat for Humanity Okanagan.