Editorial: 'Canstruction' more than stacks of tin, aluminum
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FUTURE “Canstruction” events have a tough act to follow.
The 2013 version of the food/fundraising event went into the record books last month when the imaginative and colorful “can-made” structures were disassembled at FairOaks Mall, the materials dispersed throughout the community to area food banks.
- A total of 28,789 cans of food were donated at this year’s event, easily wiping out the old record for most donations set last year of 20,630 cans.
- An estimated 2,300 cans of food were donated by patrons who used them to cast their votes for a particular structure.
- Monetary donations climbed past $3,300. Last year, there was only $48 in monetary gifts.
While the numbers are certainly impressive and serve to guarantee that the event will be continued for some time into the future, the effects of this particular project are much more far-reaching. All the money and canned goods have been divided proportionately among Love Chapel, The Salvation Army and the Hope Food Bank.
The allotments for The Salvation Army and the Hope Food Bank are the largest those groups have received in the five-year history of Canstruction. The donation to The Salvation Army is enough to sustain the organization for approximately six months.
The significance of this event is not just in the amount of goods that are now available to thousands of low-income residents in Bartholomew County.
Because of its unique characteristics Canstruction has become one of the most popular fundraising events in Bartholomew County.
In that respect, it has served as a showcase that reminds residents that this is still a community in which poverty is widespread and that there are ways that each one of us can be a part of addressing that issue.
Striking and fun as their innovative structures might have been, the message they have sent is vastly more important. Judging by the record-breaking statistics associated with this year’s event, it’s safe to say that a lot of people got that
message.
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