Making gingerbread people for 30-plus years, Vera Felts of Sequim had success supporting the community before with her annual baking tradition.

Flipping through the newspaper during the pandemic, she spotted a story about the Sequim Guild of Seattle Children’s Hospital winning an award for its efforts.

It piqued her interest, which led her to discover they had a bake sale and an annual Holiday Bazaar. She approached them about helping and “it was like open arms,” Felts said.

“They’re always looking for people who make things,” she said.

This is her fourth year making cookies for the Guild, with hundreds made last year and sold at the bazaar and the Christmas Cottage (Dec. 12-13 at 81 Timothy Lane).

The Sequim Guild holds its 19th Holiday Bazaar from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, at the Sequim Prairie Grange, 290 Macleay Road with more than 35 local handcraft artists, and Mrs. Claus’ kitchen with chili, turkey noodle soup and more.

Profits fund uncompensated care and research at Seattle Children’s Hospital with staff reporting that 1,277 Clallam and Jefferson county children receiving $2.6 million in uncompensated care and services.

Felts said she’ll have her own table at the bazaar, and she’ll take orders for 8” gingerbread people that make good gifts for grandchildren.

“They last forever and ship really well,” she said.

Her recipe is from a Betty Crocker cookbook from decades ago, and she uses more than a gallon of Grandma’s molasses every year, organic flour, and unique sweets for decorations she scouts for throughout the year.

Felts’ efforts have now become a neighborhood effort as she’s recruited 20 different neighbors and couples to help her decorate the gingerbread cookies.

Felts starts making the dough at the end of September, and in October and November the mass decorating begins.

Not only can you eat them, but they’re good for decorating Christmas trees and centerpieces, she said.

For more about the Sequim Guild of the Seattle Children’s Clinic, visit https://give.seattlechildrens.org/give/372910/#!/donation/checkout.

Hundreds of gingerbread people made by Vera Felts of Sequim and her neighbors will be for sale at the Sequim Guild of Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Holiday Bazaar on Nov. 22 in the Sequim Prairie Grange.