Jessica Brown and her Big Sister, Meg Hooper, snack as they finish their edible house in this 2006 file photo. Last year's Eldridge Gingerbread Festival & Auction raised 8,000, after expenses.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Douglas County is using gingerbread houses to help recruit mentors for at-risk children.

The Eldridge Hotel’s 12th Annual Gingerbread Festival & Auction begins Saturday and ends with an auction 7 p.m. Wednesday at the hotel, 701 Mass.

The event raises about $20,000 for the Lawrence agency, said Meg Hooper, the agency’s public relations assistant.

Adults and children have entered 22 gingerbread houses and 89 smaller graham cracker houses.

“I just think it’s a great way for families to get together and do something good,” Hooper said.

Three Lawrence sisters have made creating the gingerbread houses for the auction a regular holiday tradition.

Cali Burke, 16, has entered a house since the first festival, and her 14-year-old twin sisters, BryAnn and Ainsley, will participate in their ninth one this year.

Last year the sisters all tied for first place in the 13- to 18-year-old age group.

Sometimes the hardest part is just getting their masterpieces to the venue.

“We get our laundry baskets out and carefully, carefully put the house in the baskets then slowly take them out to the van and drive very slowly to the Eldridge,” Ainsley said.

Many items are entered into a silent auction, such as the graham cracker houses, but Mark Elston will auction off 20 of the gingerbread houses.

The proceeds from the auction are given to Big Brothers Big Sisters to help form one-on-one mentoring relationships with carefully screened adult volunteers.

The agency needs the funds this year as it tries to recruit mentors for 217 children on a waiting list – 155 of which are boys, Hooper said.

All entries will be on display at the hotel’s basement beginning at 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and Tuesday.

For more information about the auction, call the Big Brothers Big Sisters office at 843-7359.