In the center of holiday lights, bundled-up students and a wandering Santa Claus stood Indiana’s largest gingerbread house.
IU Habitat for Humanity organized the building of the 12-foot creation as a fundraiser to meet its goal of raising $70,000 to build a real home for a family in ?Bloomington.
IU Habitat for Humanity member Marlo Owczarzak said the event was originally meant to be a gingerbread house making competition but soon evolved into something bigger.
“We wanted something where everyone could interact together,” she said.
Owczarzak said there is no official record of the biggest gingerbread house in Indiana, which she said posed a challenge when deciding how big to make their house.
“We ended up calling every place in Indiana that claims they have the biggest gingerbread house, and we made ours bigger,” she said.
Owczarzak said the house started off as a wood frame to which panels of gingerbread — donated by Baked! Of Bloomington — were ?attached.
Attendees could then pay four dollars to receive a bag of candy to help decorate the house.
The inside of the three-sided house had a rocking chair, a fake fireplace, a Christmas tree and the Baked! logo on the wall.
Aside from helping to decorate the house, attendees could decorate cookies, take pictures with Santa Claus, play games and buy concessions, all while listening to the live holiday music playing in the background.
Owczarzak said she was not sure how the event would turn out as nothing similar has been done before but said she was excited it all came together.
“It’s all so festive,” ?she said.
Owczarzak said she is not sure of the exact amount of people at the event but that there was a steady flow of people throughout the entire evening.
“There were even people waiting before we were all set up,” she said.
One student at the event was sophomore resident assistant Marie Kalas, who said she brought a few girls on ?her floor.
Kalas said she and her residents had fun decorating one of the gingerbread panels on the house.
By about 6 p.m., most of the panels were filled with white frosting and candy decorations.
“The event is much bigger than I anticipated,” Kalas said. “It’s outstanding.”
Kalas said she will definitely return if the event is held again next year.
That’s good news for Owczarzak, who is already planning for a repeat event.
“Next year, we want a time lapse video or something to show the process,” she said. “It was really awesome to see everyone working together for it to all go up.”
