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The sixth annual BHS Human Rights Club Gingerbread House Building event was this past Saturday, December ninth. People came to build gingerbread houses, buy baked goods, enter in a raffle, take photos in the homemade photobooth and donate to an important cause.

All proceeds benefit Homeless Not Hopeless; an organization that was founded in 2007 to assist the homeless population. It is run by people who were formerly homeless and benefits “…those in need of short and long term help. HnH offers affordable, supportive housing, educational training and other tools to help our homeless become productive members of society,” says their website.

Planning for the event begins in October; the club decides on a date, gathers supplies and begins creating ‘buzz’. School milk cartons are gathered from Barnstable Public Schools. They are cleaned out and stored to become bases for the houses. Members of the HRC ask local stores for grants to buy candy and supplies. This year Stop and Shop, Star Market, Shaw’s, The 1856 Country Store, Trader Joe’s, BJ’s, and Roche Brothers all donated to the cause. Students in the club design a flyer, print out copies and put them around the school and the community to spread the word about the event.  

The gingerbread house event began six years ago, after the Fall Academy. Each year Human Rights Clubs from Cape Cod gather in the fall to discuss their plans for the coming year, and again in the spring to review what they have accomplished over the year. The Fall and Spring Academies allow the clubs to share ideas and learn from each other and from local organizations with a mission to serve people. In the car on the way back from the Fall Academy six years ago, BHS HRC students decided they wanted to make a difference and aid people with housing problems as they had been inspired by a representative of Homeless Not Hopeless. After deciding they wanted to raise money for this organization they came up with the idea for Gingerbread House Building, which has carried on year after year.

“I’m just so thrilled that it is becoming an event the community has become a part of,” said Pamela Silva, club advisor and history teacher here at BHS. The turnout this year was amazing, and the club was so happy to see an event they had worked so hard for be so successful.