Ever since I was little, I stared longingly at the plans for an oversized gingerbread cathedral at the back of a favorite cookbook. I told my mom, “One day I’ll make this!” to which my mom responded with dubious belief.
Fast forward 8 years: during my freshman year at Stanford, we had a 7-week-long winter break. I decided to create this gingerbread cathedral. However, I wanted it to have a larger benefit. So, I called up the homeless shelter down the street, and together we decided to raffle off the gingerbread cathedral as a fundraiser.
The “skeleton” of the gingerbread cathedral
The windowframes of the cathedral, ready for the sugar “glass”
I then began work on the cathedral. The cookbook’s instructions were closer to loose guidelines, requiring me to think on my feet and navigate ambiguity. The raffle introduced a deadline. I spent many of my waking hours rolling, baking and cutting the 200+ pieces of gingerbread, often working late into the night as I learned to engineer with this material.
As the work wore on, the initial “shininess” of the project wore off. However, the larger good the project was doing helped motivate me through any hardship. The project was no longer about me fulfilling a childhood dream: it was about using my skills to help a cause I believed in.
In the end, I spent 100+ hours over 2.5 weeks of break on the gingerbread cathedral. All of the work was more than worth it. The cathedral raised over $3,800 for the homeless shelter. Local news coverage of the project can be found here.
