Lakewood Ranch Medical Center staff sweeten up hospital café

Twelve departments participated in a gingerbread house contest this week.

By Jessica Salmond
| 11:36 a.m. December 18, 2015

CEO Richard Fletcher, COO Chris Loftus and Chief Nursing Officer Judy Young judged the entrees. Courtesy photo.

East County
Neighbors

This week, 12 departments at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center competed for the ultimate bragging rights: the winning design for a gingerbread house.

Lakewood Ranch Medical Center employees teamed up for an interdepartmental contest to decorate the edible scenes.

Patient Access designers Robin Weaver and Lisa Wilkes designed a beach scene with an Elf on a Shelf digging into a cottage. The two-woman team won first place.

Department members had two weeks to pick their teams, come up with a design and construct their visions, said Tami Caruso, a marketing associate for the center.

“Every year we have a pumpkin-carving contest, so we decided to add (the gingerbread house contest) this year,” Caruso said.

Twelve departments entered the contest.

When the entries were received, they were displayed in the medical center café. Hospital staff, patients and visitors could submit a ballot to vote for the people’s choice winner.

“There is a lot of camaraderie in the departments; it was fun and facilitated team work and added to general sense of excitement in the hospital,” Caruso said.

Three judges—CEO Richard Fletcher, COO Chris Loftus and Chief Nursing Officer Judy Young—selected the first and second place designs. The winners get a pizza party.

First place was awarded to the Patient Access team, Robin Weaver and Lisa Wilkes, for their scene, Elf on a Shelf at the Beach, and

The Women's Center won People's Choice for its design of the nursery rhyme, Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. Courtesy photo.

second to the Emergency Department for its wintertime scene. People’s Choice was voted for the Women’s Center, which designed a nursery-rhyme themed display of the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.

“It was a lot of fun and quite a challenge,” said Wilkes. “It was the first time I’d ever made a gingerbread house.”

Wilkes said she was pleased with their design, although the morning before the judging, she and her teammate Weaver had to rebuild the palm trees because the cookie straw “trunks” got soggy.

Caruso said the hospital staff participated in multiple festive projects this year, including participating in the Salvation Army Angel Tree project, writing cards to U.S. military troops and holding a food drive. As of Friday, Dec. 18, the gingerbread houses are still on display.

“I liked the Christmas spirit,” Wilkes said. “The hospital is large, we have 500 employees, so it was fun to see the different departments and see the different ideas.”