It has been a giving and festive time in Vicksburg this week.

Groups have aided those less fortunate, and a gingerbread house was built for all to enjoy.

A collaborative effort by the bakery, culinary and facilities teams at Ameristar Casino Hotel Vicksburg constructed a gingerbread village that will be on display through Dec. 31 at the casino.

The architectural confection stands nearly six feet tall and was constructed using 320 pounds of gingerbread, 200 pounds of sugar, 150 pounds of royal icing and more than 100 pieces of candy. It took more than100 hours to design and build. The brain behind the design was pastry chef Nelson Gonzalez.

“I just created it out of my mind,” Gonzalez said.

The gingerbread house is located on the 3rd floor of the casino right outside of Bourbon’s Steakhouse and Heritage Buffet.

• On Thursday, Vicksburg and Warren Central high schools LIVE, GIVE and Beta club organizations teamed up to give to the less fortunate. The schools held a food drive and delivered the nonperishable items to the River City Rescue Mission as a means of simply being generous.

The organizations collected more than 200 nonperishable food items during the two weeks and donated the overflowing boxes to the mission.

“This means a lot,” Earnie Hall, director, said. “It’s a temporary fix to a big problem in Vicksburg. People come in each day hungry and this really helps.”

LIVE and GIVE are organizations in the city’s public schools, which encourage the youth to be all about serving others.

• On Saturday, the Warren County Sheriff’s office handed out gift packages and bicycles to more than 100 children whose parents are being held in the Warren County Jail.

The gifts were afforded by Jammin’ For the Kids, a fundraiser that was founded 20 years ago to raise money for toys and bicycles for the children of inmates in the county jail.

“This was started by Jimmy Hartley, our chaplain at the time, and his wife Debra more than 20 years ago, and his daughter-in-law, Stacy Hartley, has continued it,” Sheriff Martin Pace said.“For the last 20 years, we have been receiving donations from local bands performing in Jammin’ For the Kids, and our present chaplain Earnie Hall also participates.”

Besides the inmates’ children, pace said the sheriff’s office also provides gifts for victims’ famililes where the head of the household has been killed or incapacitated because of a crime.

“We also have adopted children with the Head Start centers,” Pace said.

More positives this week in Vicskburg:

·         Warren Central quarterback Fred Barnum, Jr., was chosen as the 2017 Vicksburg Post Offensive Player of the Year. Barnum threw for 1,600 yards and 10 touchdowns, and ran for 620 yards and three TDs this season. He is the first Warren Central player to win the award since 2009.

·         On Wednesday, the Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce announced the start of a collaborative effort to develop a holistic economic development strategy. The Chamber announced the selection of VisionFirst Advisors, led by Gray Swoope, to direct the strategic planning process and plan.This effort, supported also by the Warren County Port Commission and the Warren County Economic Development Foundation, seeks to create a community strategy that will clarify common objectives and outline an action plan for implementation. “Vicksburg-Warren County is at a point of great opportunity to leverage our assets and better define where we want to go in the future,” said VWCC’s Executive Director Pablo Diaz. “We must think beyond Vicksburg and beyond Mississippi, to position our community for greater success and economic prosperity for our residents. This is why we selected VisionFirst Advisors to help us design a roadmap for our future.”