(Rensselaer Architecture student Tyler Hopf wrote this post about a team of Rensselaer students who are putting their skills and talents to a good cause in the Albany round of the nationwide CANstruction fundraising event.)
My name is Tyler Hopf and I am the captain of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute CANstruction team. We are the only student team competing in a regional design competition against other professional architecture and engineering firms. We are competing with one another through our designs, but in the end, all of our efforts go towards helping the hungry.
Each year we raise money to purchase canned food from Price Chopper and design something crazy to build with them. After we build our CANstructure, it is exhibited in the New York State Museum for two weeks and then after it is taken down, all of the canned food is donated directly to the Food Pantries for the Capital Region.
Last year was our team’s first year participating. We raised about $2,000 and donated about 1,600 cans. This year we have raised over $4,000 and are getting ready to use 3,000 cans in our CANstructure! Our team is growing – we have students from every year participating, we have increased our donor network and our design is far more ambitious. This is my last year and I am so proud of our team and what we have accomplished.
This theme of the Captial Region CANstruction 2013 is “CAN you imagine…” and our spin on is a “Wizard of Oz” theme. We have a swirling tornado to build, a twisting yellow brick road to lay, and a grand Emerald City and a flowing field of poppies to build. The image at the top of this post is a computer model of our ambitious design.
Our CANstructure will be displayed in the New York State Museum for two weeks from March 28 to April 10.
Check out our alumni giving page to see last years project and to help us out by donating to our cause! We could really use the help!
Look out Dorothy, we’re not in CANsas anymore!