By SAMANTHA MCDONNELL
OBSERVER Staff Writer
Students from BOCES LoGuidice were dreaming of sweet treats. Culinary students of David Caccamise's class at BOCES LoGuidice Center created edible gingerbread houses for the annual project.
Article Photos
OBSERVER Photo by Samantha McDonnell
Junior Chelsea Babcock of Westfield works on a barn made of gingerbread. Babcock was part of a group that won third place in the junior class.
The three-week project culminated with houses judged on Thursday by faculty and fellow students at BOCES. All students who created the houses were juniors or seniors in high school. Juniors are required to work in a team to make their houses while senior students could choose to work on their houses solo.
Each house began with a cardboard template of what the house would look like. From the template, gingerbread was cut out and decorated. The school provided the ingredients to make the gingerbread, but students were responsible for decorating.
"The students had to provide all the candy," Caccamise said.
Caccamise gave very few directions for the students' houses. The only criteria he had for the houses was the students had to make the houses to fit on a two foot by two foot board.
"They use a lot of imagination. The most important part is creativity," he said.
The students' houses varied in sizes and themes. Each house was judged on use of materials, creativity, overall appearance, holiday spirit and teamwork or individuality. Faculty and other students voted on their favorite houses to have first through third place awards for each grade.
"What I heard from a lot of people, (the judging) was such a hard decision to make," Caccamise said. "The houses were just great this year."
Among the houses was a house inspired by the movie "Up" complete with helium balloons, a dog house, a church, a trailer park, multi-level and multi-structure projects, along with seasonal looking houses.
"It's a big sense of accomplishment for some of (the students). For some, this is the first gingerbread house they ever made," Caccamise said.
In the senior class, first place went to the team of Robert Morello, Marcanna Zielinski and Kaitlin Johnson for their "Up" inspired house. For second place, there was a tie between Jason Stevens for his house for Rusty adorned with two dogs in front and Andrew Estrada who made a church with a licorice drawbridge. Third place went to the pair Kyle O'Mara and Garrett Knappke for their multi-level structure.
In the junior class, first place went to the team of Ashley DePonceau, Allen Lintz and Kayla Peting for a tradition seasonal house complete with walnut covered walls. The team of Jazmine Fuentes, Cassandra Goodwill and Dalton Neubauer took second place for their traditional house with a fence made from Kit Kat candy bars and a candy pathway. In third place was Chelsea Babcock, Nick Bausum, Jeremy Brumfield and Skylar Emery for their multi-structure project that included a house, barn and garage.
"Hopefully this (project) will inspire them to make more gingerbread houses in the future," Caccamise said.
Comments on this article may be sent to smcdonnell@observertoday.com.
