Listen Here
By Erin Moran
morane@findlay.edu
The 20th year for Helping Hands food drive at the University of Findlay shattered the previous record with 458,171 pounds of food collected. That’s 192,955 more pounds than last year’s 265,216.
David Harr, director of dining services at UF, made the announcement Thursday Nov. 6, the Center for Business and Student Life. The building was filled with creativity and pride as student organizations waited to find out who won awards in the fifth annual Can-struction event as part of the annual Helping Hands food drive.
Teams were asked to design and create sculptures made from donated canned goods. This year’s theme, “Band Together to Fight Hunger,” emphasized community support in hope of raising awareness of food insecurity.
Seventeen teams of various student organizations on campus participated in the event this year. They were given from 5 p.m. on Oct 31 to 5 p.m. on Nov. 4 to create and complete their unique designs.
“The Helping Hands food drive collects all the cans and then distributes them evenly to groups, but each group doesn’t have to use all of them if they don’t want to,” said Kennedy Shaull, the secretary for the American Sign Language (ASL) Club.
“Can-struction is a meaningful event that allows the University and community to be a part of inclusion and positive change” said Shaull.
Judging and public voting began Nov. 4, immediately after the building period ended, and was open until 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5. The student government association (SGA) casted their votes for the categories of most creative. The most poundage goes to the team with the most cans used. While the people’s choice award was given to the building with the most likes through the Oilereats social media account.
Winners were announced Nov 6. At 12 p.m.
- Most Creative – Technology and Gaming Club
- Most Poundage – Alpha Psi Omega
- People’s Choice – Student Occupational Therapy Association
“I think it’s just important to support the community and those in need and this is just a fun way to give the event even more awareness” said Shaull.
Over the last few years, Helping Hands has contributed more than 2 million pounds of food to the non-profit local organization, Christians Helping Other People In Need (CHOPIN) Hall. Each year has exceeded the last, making the event highly anticipated as it offers help during the increased need in the winter months.
This year there were 406 volunteers assisting in making Helping Hands successful including Adam Cain, a representative from the University’s men’s club volleyball team.
“It’s a great way to help out the community and bring together a lot of people, especially from the community in Findlay,” Cain said.
Can-struction has become a tradition that blends creativity, community involvement, and awareness. The ASL club focused on building a structure that incorporated the theme given and the club’s goals.
“Deaf people listen to music through vibrations and other listening devices. So we chose to put some stereos in and also include the sign for rock,” Shaull said. “Using both the theme, and the club’s mission statement of increasing deaf culture knowledge and awareness, we wanted to make it a little educational, so we also put up a poster about how it’s relevant to the theme and education.”
Seth Dahlhausen, acting-president of SGA, announced the winners of the Can-struction event on Nov. 6.
“It’s really cool to see all the organizations come together and come up with these really cool structures,” Dahlhausen said.
“(The) friendly competition is very fun and we all know that this is for a great cause especially in a time like today,” said Dahlhausen. “So to get the poundage that we did this year is amazing.”
