Alex Dittrich, Staff Editor
Newtown High School’s student government held an event in December to gather food for the Feed the Need pantry in effort to support local families in need of food, and the event was a definite success. To add to the Christmas spirit, student government decided to host a gingerbread house contest and encouraged students who came to the event to bring canned foods along with them for donation. The idea was that the more cans students brought, the more candy, icing, and other supplies they received for their house.
The judges, social studies teachers Larry Saladin, Jennifer Dellasala and Thomas Pescarmona, evaluated the gingerbread houses based on creativity and execution. After careful evaluation, the judges announced that the first place winners were NHS seniors Caroline Tanner, Hannah Booth, and Carly Grossano, who worked together to create a gingerbread house using pizza, and naming the house “Pizza Hut.”
“I was so surprised when we won. Carly, Hannah, and I went into the competition with no ideas. We joked about using the pizza as an ingredient but once Hannah made the pizza path, I joked that we should make the Pizza Hut. We just went for it and got super sticky,” Tanner said.
The first prize winners also received a prize basket filled with gift cards, candles, fuzzy socks, and more. Gift certificate prizes were also given to the team that gave the most cans, to the most creative team, and the team whose house was not very good looking, but at least tried.
One minor inconvenience occurred throughout the event, held in the New Cafeteria, when a group of middle school band students showed up to practice for their upcoming concert in the same area. However, the attendants of the gingerbread house event were able to accommodate and make room for the middle school students, and everything turned out ok.
“Overall the gingerbread house contest went really well! Everyone who participated had a great time and the gingerbread houses made were actually really impressive for being made so quickly. The canned food items each group brought at sign up went to Feed The Need, which uses these food items to make dishes to send out to people in need. Except for a scheduling problem that involved some middle school band students, I'd say the event couldn't have gone better!” NHS senior and student government member Veronica Moyer said.
Student government adviser, Saladin, was just as enthusiastic as the students in regards to the gingerbread house contest’s success. “It was an amazing experience. We were able to build on the success of last year’s event by doubling the size of the number of participants for this year. Despite the double booking obstacle, it went very well,” Saladin said.
Student government members and attendants of the event alike were all very pleased with how the event turned out. “Everyone was so energetic and enthusiastic! You could tell everyone was having a great time,” Tanner said, “Though it may seem as if I am just vouching for my friends, I fully believe that it was the best event Newtown high school has ever held.”
Photo Credit; www.portlandmaine.com