Canstruction teams looking for participants

Once again, the United Methodist Church of Plains and Paradise is inviting local businesses, services groups and neighboring churches to participate in a creative project to collect non-perishable food for the Plains Food Bank and have fun doing it.

The object is to build a structure out of cans, which will be exhibited at Plains Day, June 1, 2013. Hopefully we will have enough participants to present a People’s Choice award for the favorite structure. All of the food collected will be donated to the Food Bank at the end of the day.

Last year the three entries included a tulip, a fishing boat, and a large fish named Fillmore Tumeez. Now is the time to gather your friends, co-workers and church members, put your imaginations to work and start planning your creative sculpture. From those three sculptures, close to 1000 pounds of food were collected and delivered to the Food Bank in 2012.

Planning and constructing the sculptures calls for creativity and teamwork. Teams need people first; who can visualize the finished product, then comes calculating the number of food items needed and the planning and placement of them. This project can involve people of all talents and ages. For ideas and building hints you may contact the United Methodist Web site at www.plainsparadisemethodists.com. There are also a large number of projects to be found by doing a web search, key word: Canstructions.

Structures must fit on a 4’x8’ base and be made entirely of non-perishable, commercially canned, boxed or bagged food items. Plywood, Masonite, Plexiglas, foam core and/or cardboard may be used for support. Clear tape, Velcro, nylon string, wire, plastic or wire zip ties and clear silicone may be used for fastening the parts of the structure together. All fasteners must be removed before the items are delivered to the Food Bank.

Food Item labels must remain legible and intact for delivery to the Food Bank.

To give those interested in participating in the project this year, some sense of scale in 2012 the contribution from the Methodist Church was: approximately 315 regular cans, 144 cans of tuna, 82 boxes of Jell-O, 40 boxes of Mac and cheese, and 12 bags of dried beans and rice.

We hope to see a good number of teams joining us in the 2013 project to stock the shelves of the Plains Food Bank and have fun doing it!

For information and to register, please contact: Ellen Childress (826-3755) by May 15, 2013

Registration is needed to plan display space during Plains Day.