March 7, 2018 at 4:03 p.m.
Teams stack cans for food pantry
Teams stack cans for food pantry
By Kayla Thomason-
The event, sponsored by the Rhinelander Area Food Pantry and Rouman Cinema, is a charitable event for the food pantry as all items used in the projects and the cans used to cast votes goes to the pantry.
This year there are five teams: "Thomas the Train Chugging Through Hunger" by Ascension Medical Group, "Make Hunger Walk the Plank" by Team PeliCAN, "Tuning in to Hunger with Bob & Larry" by the Rhinelander First United Methodist Church, "Hunger ... Good Grief!" by Park City Credit Union, and "SpongeBob SquarePants" by Kids Impacting our Neighborhood.
"We've got five good teams, we've got at least two of them that are going to have a lot of cans," said Guy Hansen, executive director of the food pantry, who said was happy to see four returning teams and one new team.
Amy Rogers, a second-grade teacher at Pelican Elementary School, said she had four second-graders put their creative skills to use, as well as her own family.
"We had our whole class vote on their favorite cartoon and SpongeBob won," she said.
Rogers thinks it's nice that the children get to experience the build, learning about and helping the food pantry along the way.
"The children really get into it and it's for a really good cause in their community," she said.
This marks Pelican Elementary's school's fifth year participating in the contest. Rogers said she hopes others who have been teetering on entering the build will give it a try.
"I encourage them to try it," she said. "We were a little nervous the first year that we did it because we'd never done it before."
Erica Cruby and her group from Park City Credit Union, had to change ideas for their build, as Bugs Bunny wasn't working out.
"It was kind of a group effort," she said. "We had one design picked out but once we started building we realized it probably wasn't going to be the best so after sitting around thinking we decided we were going to try Snoopy."
Cruby said encourages others to try CANtastic for many reasons.
"Being able to help out the food pantry, that's the best part about it, and it's fun," she said.
Alexis Denny, and her group from United Methodist Church, got stacking on their build - Bob and Larry from "VeggieTales."
"We were basically looking at different cartoons and we came up with the idea because we wanted to do something related to the church and so one of our favorite Christian cartoons that everyone knows as a kid was 'VeggieTales,'" she said.
United Methodist Church won the award for most cans used during last year's build and is hoping to get it again this year. Denny said enjoys that this fun event helps others.
"Probably being a part of it is just knowing you're helping somebody else be able to have food and have a meal," she said of her favorite aspect of the event.
For anyone on the fence about participating, she said it was nice to be creative, and to come together to help others.
The groups will be judged on creativity, use of color and complexity.
The creations will be up for two weeks so the public can view them and cast their vote after 4 p.m. during the week. At the conclusion of the event the winners will be announced for the Judges Choice, People's Choice and Most Cans Used.
"They'll be on display for two weeks so we encourage people from the public to come and vote for their favorite by putting a box or can of food in the bin," Hansen said.
To cast a vote place a can in the voting bin in front of the display of your choosing. The can must be full, unopened and labels intact.
Plastic or glass containers, alcohol or soda, pet food or junk food will not be accepted.
"We really appreciate Rouman Cinema providing the space for us, it's a great spot, and we appreciate all the donations and everyone that's participating," Hansen said.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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