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Richmond Times Dispatch Features CHS Winning Gingerbread House Team

…and photo-bomber RVA Mayor Lavar Stoney!

CHS was proud to be featured in a recent Times Dispatch article in the Social Life section that covered the Better Housing Coalition’s Hardywood Gingerbread House Challenge in November. This pictoral report featured pictures and captions of our Gingerbread creation AND some of our wining team members, staff and supporters, including Mayor Lavar Stoney! Our edible rendition of Christmas at the original Children’s Home Society office and “receiving home” was the Juried Prize second place winner!

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Better Housing Coalition’s Hardywood Gingerbread House Challenge

Content provided by The Better Housing Coalition; photos by Taylor Dabney except where noted

The Better Housing Coalition’s Hardywood Gingerbread House Challenge was held Nov. 5, 2017, at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. The event coincided with the release of Hardywood’s popular Gingerbread Stout. The fundraiser was organized by the Better Housing Coalition’s young professionals board (BHCyp). Proceeds benefited the Better Housing Coalition’s mission of “changing lives and transforming communities through high-quality, affordable housing.” The event, sponsored by Fulton Bank, Fulton Mortgage Company, UrbanCore Construction, AIA Richmond, Green Truck Marketing, Red Eye Cookie Co. and Virginia Community Capital raised more than $14,000.

Nearly 500 people attended the event during which 22 teams from local corporations and nonprofit organizations competed for cash prizes by constructing gingerbread “houses” to the theme “Holidays in RVA.” Entries were not limited to houses, and had to meet specific size requirements. A celebrity judges’ panel chose the $1,000 prize winner. Judges were Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney, Katie Ukrop of Quirk Hotel & Gallery, Matt Shofner of Hardywood, radio personality Kelli Lemon, and Lynn McAteer of the Better Housing Coalition.

Event attendees voted for the $500 People’s Choice winner by dropping a bottle cap in a jar next to their favorite entry. All of the gingerbread house entries were sold in a silent auction during the event to attendees wanting to take home one of the creations for the holidays.