We’ve officially hit the festive season of 2021 and, of course, our activity calendar has been full of fun and interesting activities for us all to enjoy. As we spoke about in our last blog post, despite the Winter temperatures, we still make sure that everyone is having fun and enjoying their time with us. 

During these colder months, lots of games are played and we enjoy crafting together with lots of sticking and glueing, painting, arranging and art production. If it’s particularly cold and miserable outside, we sometimes like to cosy up with a hot drink and a good film!

Last week, though, we were busy doing something else – making a gingerbread house for Safe In Sussex’s annual gingerbread house competition. Safe In Sussex is a registered charity dedicated to preventing domestic abuse and supporting people in West Sussex affected by domestic abuse. This was the fourth year for the competition which asks contestants to create a themed gingerbread house that can be explained at the judging event. 

We dedicated our gingerbread house to the NHS and all the frontline workers who have worked tirelessly since the start of this pandemic and throughout. We are truly inspired by their dedication and determination to literally ‘save lives’. 

Our beautiful gingerbread house.

The signs that we included outside the gingerbread house are ones that we have all seen pop up during the pandemic. Including ‘stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives’, ‘Thank-you NHS’ and ‘Clap for our carers and NHS’.

As you can see from the picture, our gingerbread house had a strong rainbow theme that has become symbolic and prominent in the covid response. However, we also celebrate the true roots of the NHS rainbow which lie as a sign of safety for anyone who is a part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

We’re proud to announce that we came third in the competition against 19 other contestants; all of whom had incredible designs and themes. A huge congratulations goes to Rayner IOL, the overall winner, and My Networking Club who came in second place.

Of course, it’s great to be in third place, but it’s important to highlight that all proceeds from the competition went to Safe In Sussex. If you’d like to make your own donation to Safe In Sussex, visit their donation page.

Update for December 2022

We’re really pleased to announce that we were awarded third place again for the Safe In Sussex Gingerbread House Competition 2022. See below for a photo of our creation!