Yellow and blue stepping stones lead to a cozy cottage with an attached three-story windmill. A bright red bow adorns the front door, while rainbow shingles shimmer on the rooftop. To the left of the property, ducks rest peacefully on a pond, and in the front yard, a snowman greets visitors. This sweet dwelling looks good enough to eat. And well, that’s possible.

“I don’t know if I’d want to eat it, but it is edible,” Kathy Webster says looking down at the gingerbread house she built with her neighbor, Donna Stvartak. Their creation won first place in the amateur division at the 2024 Wilkes Literacy Gingerbread House Festival. Even though most of the house is gingerbread, the ladies found inspiration in a ceramic windmill at an antiques shop and worked from a cardboard model to create a parchment template. They crafted the base of the property — the snowman, ducks, trees, and a bridge — mostly from fondant, and they used peppermint sticks as fencing. Ribbons of rainbows, also known as Air Heads Xtremes, serve as the roofing and windmill siding.

Each submission at the Gingerbread House Festival will help someone build a brighter future. photograph by Revival Creatives

During the construction phase, the two ladies used soup and vegetable cans to hold their materials together. And then, to transport their windmill house to the festival at The 1915, an elegant event venue in downtown Wilkesboro, they drove 5 miles per hour along the two-and-a-half-mile bumpy road that leads to Webster’s house at about 2,000 feet of elevation. Completing and moving the project was harder than it looks, Webster says with a laugh. Nevertheless, a sense of accomplishment shines from her eyes as she and Stvartak gaze at the dark blue ribbon that hangs near their windmill.

• • •

Holiday cheer is on full display in downtown Wilkesboro on this first Saturday in December. Folks stake out their spots to watch the annual parade along the wreath-lined streets. There’s live music, kids’ activities, the lighting of the Heritage Square Christmas tree, and — of course — the gingerbread festival. Jean Hefner, executive director of Wilkes Literacy, walks around the main room of the Federal Revival-style building, pointing out the range of entries from gingerbread abodes crafted from store-bought kits to an octopus winding its sandy-baked tentacles around fondant-molded shells and a treasure chest. There’s even a Millennium Falcon decorated with Skittles.

Serving as executive director for Wilkes Literacy since 2019, Jean Hefner enjoys seeing the smiling faces at the festival.  photograph by Revival Creatives

Initially inspired by The Omni Grove Park Inn & Spa’s annual event, Hefner started the festival — the nonprofit’s primary fundraiser — in 2020. In the wake of the Covid pandemic, she felt it was important that the organization, which focuses on adult literacy, have other ways to fund its mission if a grant fell through. Admission is free, as the event makes most of its money from selling entries in a silent auction and sponsorships — The Health Foundation matches what they make at the festival up to $10,000.

Money raised helps pay for Wilkes Literacy’s programming, including funding their summer camps and purchasing online math programs and new books for each student. “We feel like it’s important for students to have a fresh set of books,” Hefner says. “I think that’s part of preserving their dignity — helping them to feel like they’re really accomplishing something.”

When people walk in to see 60 houses built by children and amateur and professional bakers, they realize that the festival goes beyond royal icing and gumdrops. A poster in the front hallway states that one in seven adults in Wilkes County cannot read on a fifth-grade level.

• • •

When Hefner stepped into her role in 2019, she knew that about 20 percent of adults in Wilkes County didn’t have a high school diploma. But now, she knows their personal stories, too. Like the elderly gentleman who ran a successful engine repair business for years, but didn’t know the alphabet. Or a mom who would show her daughters YouTube videos of a woman reading books because she couldn’t read to them. Or a 19-year-old high school dropout who realized he made a short-sighted decision. Wilkes Literacy works with people who either seek out their services or are referred — an ear doctor once reached out to Hefner, asking to give one of his patients some additional support.

Over the past six years, Hefner’s work with the community has taught her that the ability to read and comprehend goes beyond being able to finish a book. Literacy gives people the confidence to read a prescription label and take the proper dosage, to fill out a medical form, to follow recipes and cook healthier meals for their families. Wilkes Literacy tutors also help strengthen students’ math and numeracy skills so they can understand basic finance.

Approximately 60 houses were showcased in the 2024 Wilkes Literacy Gingerbread House Festival from people of all skill levels — children and amateur and professional bakers. photograph by Revival Creatives

Students who come to the organization usually fit into one of three categories: They need a basic education certificate, English is their second language, or they need the equivalent of a high school degree. Some students — like the high school dropout who came to Hefner and admitted, “I made a stupid choice when I dropped out” — work with a Wilkes Literacy tutor and reach their goal in a few months. Hefner felt deep sympathy and admiration for that student. “Most adults can’t say when they did something wrong,” she says. Now, after passing his high school exam, he plans to enroll in college and has set his sights on pursuing a welding career. A handful of students are more of what Hefner describes as “a slow crawl,” and work with the organization for a few years before they reach their goals.

While Hefner wishes she could say that all the 25 to 30 students the nonprofit serves in a year achieve their individual objectives, “sometimes they come in, and they just leave,” she says. “Sometimes when a person — who has never really had anything good happen — gets to where something really good is happening, it’s almost like they self-sabotage because they don’t know how to handle that.” Luckily, Wilkes Literacy’s dedicated volunteers also act as dedicated cheerleaders, providing students with consistent encouragement and accountability. That support is often what helps students cross the finish line.

• • •

Ruth Paredes’ high school career ended prematurely when she became a mom to a baby girl and then later a boy in Los Angeles. As a single parent, she felt overwhelmed by the prospect of raising kids and finishing her education. She moved to Wilkesboro 10 years ago, hoping to give her children a slower pace of life. She kept telling herself that she’d get her GED. “I just kept saying ‘at some point …’” she says. When the residential coordinator at the local housing authority learned of Paredes’s ambition, she connected her to Wilkes Literacy.

Paredes met with tutors twice a week for nearly two years. She attributes her progress to the weekly check-in texts from her tutors and their willingness to work at Paredes’s pace. “Jean and everybody else rallied for me,” she says. Paredes’s goal was to — “God willing” — graduate high school the same time as her son in May 2026. She crossed the finish line in June, almost a full year ahead of schedule.

One in seven adults can’t read on a fifth-grade level in Wilkes County. These whimsical creations are helping remedy that, and they also serve a dose of holiday cheer. photograph by Revival Creatives

Soon after Paredes passed her exams and earned her high school equivalency, a team of five Wilkes Literacy tutors — all who had a hand in helping her — gathered to celebrate at a community center in Paredes’s neighborhood. They joined Paredes’s husband, children, and extended family to cut cake and shower her with gifts. “She just needed people to walk alongside her and show her she could do it,” Hefner says. And, in wasting no time, Paredes met with a career coach at a community college after the celebration to discuss her future education goals. Hefner is certain that Paredes is college ready.

As the festival draws to a close, Hefner stands at the front of the room, smiling at the scene playing out before her: A boy sporting a Santa hat excitedly points out a baked home with a lawn sculpted from Rice Krispies; women dressed in colorful winter sweaters take pictures of a train station supported by pillars of peppermint. The festival is a big undertaking, but Hefner finds satisfaction in knowing that when one of her students graduates, their success started right here in a room filled with gingerbread.

Wilkes Literacy Gingerbread House Festival
December 5 to 6
201 West Main Street
Wilkesboro, NC 28697
(336) 818-1323
wilkesliteracy.org/gingerbread