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Local team wins national gingerbread challenge

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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”.

A team of Yellowknifers just won Engineers Canada's Feats of Gingerbread Challenge.

Their team, Northern Gingerbread(wo)men is made up of made up of two engineers, a biologist, a lawyer and a teacher.

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”.

Jennie Rausch, Alex Giroux, Delia Chesworth, Kelly McLaughlin, and Amy Wilkinson first had to raise $500 for a charity of their choice to be eligible to compete. They chose Food Rescue Yellowknife, an organization dedicated to diverting food that would otherwise be wasted or thrown out so it can be used for school lunch programs, senior facilities, homeless populations, individuals and families.

After becoming eligible, teams across the country design and build feats of gingerbread engineering to compete with other cookie creations. Then Engineers Canada matches the donation of the team with the most votes, up to $10,000. Voting for the contest was held online at featsofgingerbread.ca from Dec. 3 to 17, and the team displayed their creation at Centre Square Mall during that period. The Yellowknife team's Northern-themed scene, called Christmas at the Treeline, took several hours to create and featured the northern lights, caribou and an igloo.

Their hard work paid off, and Christmas at the Treeline beat out a 1.1 metre high gingerbread tower created by Montreal-based firm SBSA Structural Consultants by 18 votes, garnering 717 in total.

In the end, Northern Gingerbread (Wo)men raised $5,201 for Food Rescue Yellowknife, with the matched donation from Engineers Canada bringing that total to $10,402.