Gingerbread Contest Winner Donating Prize to ACTS

Woodbridge resident Bindi Oldershaw is the winner of this year's , but the real winners will be local families in need.

That's because Oldershaw has decided to donate the $100 prize she received, plus one dollar for every vote she tallied to Action in Community Through Service (ACTS).

Oldershaw says she plans to donate the sum of $160 sometime in January when area food banks and donation centers served through ACTS are running low after the holidays.

Oldershaw, who is British, won first place in the adult contest for her Tudor-style Gingerbread house.(see photo)

She said her design is more reminiscent of an American-style Tudor home, but said the inspiration for her winning Gingerbread house came from her Grandmother's house in England where she "went for many Christmases."

Oldershaw has lived in Woodbridge for nearly 20 years and says she often tried making Gingerbread houses with her kids when they were growing up, but they would always collapse.

So when Oldershaw told her now-grown children that she was entering her first Gingerbread contest, they "smiled and chuckled."

The Tudor Gingerbread house received a total of 57 votes, which could be cast online. According to Historic Manassas, Inc. many of the votes for Oldershaw's creation came from the United Kingdom.