June 24th 2015 was the second year of the Canstruction Build Day competition for both Northwest Indiana and young designer Emily Gross. The NWI branches of United Way joined together to bring the super hero themed food drive to the Southlake Mall. Teams of volunteers spent the day building hunger awareness out of tin can statues of their heroes. Would Emily do it again next year? “Yes, Definitely.”
To see more photos from the event, click here!
“It’s been a great program to see from beginning to end,” said Lisa Daugherty, CEO of Lake Area United Way. “From the point that the kids were throwing out ideas and sketching it on paper to them applying it to the software, then bringing it to actual design here. The CIVICS coaches and the students who were there did a phenomenal job.”
A lot more goes into each structure than a casual onlooker may realize. In June the kids met with their coaches for the first time at Ivy Tech University, to begin the planning. Each team chose their super hero, then began pouring over their catalog of canned food. Sponsors like Pepsi, Jak’s Warehouse, and the VonTobel family paid for the food the kids picked out.
Day two of the Canstruction food drive took place at the Purdue Civic center, where the kids saw 3D images of their designs.
Today they saw their drafts realized.
Shellie Dell, the Relationship Manager at the Lake Area United Way, says that this “is a great opportunity for children of this age bracket to work together to do a couple things. One is to learn about STEM: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It also teaches them about giving back to the community.”
Hunger is very much a community problem. If we want to solve it, we need to fight it together. That is what these sculptors embody. “It’s teamwork,” Says Tom Sanders, the Director of Engagement for the NWI branches of Purdue University. “These people have been working together since nine o'clock in the morning. Everybody participated and everybody pitched in and everybody helped.”
These kids have shown us that we too need to work as a team. Hunger is humanity’s archnemesis and together, we can fight it.
Porter Country United Way President Sharon Tish wrapped up everyone’s sentiment about the food drive. “Today was great. The kids worked so hard, they made such amazing structures, and this food is going to serve the hungry of Northwest Indiana. We couldn’t be more delighted.”