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PHOTOS: Buddy Program hosts annual gingerbread house workshop

Around 250 big and little buddies participated

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Regan Mertz

Big and Little Buddies take part in the 12th annual Gingerbread House Workshops, hosted by The Buddy Program, on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024, at St. Regis Aspen.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

The Buddy Program hosted two Gingerbread House Workshops this weekend.

For the last 12 years, the Buddy Program has brought big and little buddies together to decorate gingerbread houses. This year, one took place on Saturday in Carbondale at the Third Street Center, and another one took place on Sunday in Aspen at the St. Regis.

Executive Director Lindsay Lofaro said that it is not just about decorating the houses, it is a “super elevated gingerbread event.”

“It’s not just like, here’s a couple gum drops. It’s every type of candy that you can imagine,” she said. “It’s a really fun way to celebrate the holiday. The kids … they’ll have a gingerbread house and then all the candy for decorating that they would ever want their little hands on.”

The Buddy Program is a locally based mentoring organization that has been in the Roaring Fork Valley for 51 years. There are four primary ways that staff and volunteers mentor kids in Aspen, Basalt, Carbondale, and Glenwood Springs.


The first one is the Community-based Program, where an adult mentors a child, and they spend time together out in the community. The School-based program provides an opportunity for adults to go into a school to see their little buddy there. The Peer-to-Peer Program is where high school students go to a middle or elementary school once a week to spend time with their little buddy.

The fourth primary program is the LEAD Program, which stands for leadership through exploration, action, and discovery. This mentoring program uses outdoor and experiential opportunities to mentor youth with an adult overseeing a group of 10-13 kids. This program extends to Rifle.

“I think one of the things the staff loves is that we see the kids come back year after year,” Lofaro said. “Obviously, we see the kids throughout the year, but as they get older, they don’t grow out of gingerbread. We sometimes think, ‘Oh, they’re too cool. They don’t want to do it anymore,’ But they show up till their senior year in high school, and they love it.”

“They just get right in there, and they’re like, ‘Oh, I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do this year and what I’m going to use and how I’m going to decorate,'” she added. “And it’s just a tradition that they never outgrow, and something really special that the buddy pair has been able to do for many years together.”

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Between Saturday and Sunday’s events, the Buddy Program had over 180 kids participate in decorating the gingerbread houses. Around 50-60 of those kids have adult big buddies, and another 50-60 have their high school big buddies working with them. The LEAD kids also come together in their own groups to decorate, so all in all, well over 250 participants every year.

While the Buddy Program gets candy donations from Mars, they purchase all of the houses. Through donors, sponsors, and bulk ordering, however, the program is able to underwrite most of the cost for the houses. The buddies get their gingerbread houses for free.

And the houses do not get thrown away at the end of the event: everybody gets to take them home.

“It gets wrapped in a big cellophane bag with a huge bow on it, and they walk out of the Regis or the Third Street Center with this beautiful house that is probably dripping and 90 pounds with all the candy on it,” Lofaro said. “And they take it home to share it with their families and have a wonderful holiday.”

If a community member would like a gingerbread house of their own, the Buddy Program is selling kits. For more information on the kits or to get involved in the program, go to buddyprogram.org.

Regan Mertz can be reached at 970-429-9153 or rmertz@aspentimes.com.

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