March 19, 2018 at 4:32 p.m.
Winners of eighth annual CANtastic announced
Winners of eighth annual CANtastic announced
By Kayla Thomason-
This year's event raised 3,609 cans, 3,171 of which were used for the structures and 438 for voting.
The People's Choice winner was Team PeliCAN with their "Make Hunger Walk the Plank" display.
The Rhinelander First United Methodist Church entry, "Tuning in to Hunger with Bob & Larry," won two awards. The team won the "Most Cans Used" award with 1,487, and Judges Choice by earning 58 out of 60 points, taking the title by one point
"They were all very good," Guy Hansen, executive director of the food pantry, said of this year's displays.
Hansen said the total donation is in the ballpark of past years, and that was with only five teams as opposed to some of the other years when there were as many as eight teams.
"It speaks very well for the number of cans for the group that we had," he said, adding that he enjoys seeing the participants have a good time and is grateful for the use of the Rouman Cinema.
"It's a nice event, we're happy to do it and we're glad that people participated and had a good time," he said.
Tatiana Vadis, a second grade teacher at Pelican elementary School, was giddy to hear her team had won the People's Choice award.
"(I'm) super excited because this is my first year doing it and I'm super glad that we won," she said.
Pelican's theme was based on the cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants," as suggested by Vadis' second-grade class. Vadis said she doesn't share her students' interest in the show.
"Not in particular," she said of the show. "I mean I do not watch it, but I like what we did."
Vadis said she feels good that all the goods used to build the creations go to the food pantry and she hopes other schools will compete next year.
"I thought this was really fun, so other people getting a chance to do it, I think they would have a good time, too," Vadis said.
Bart Kotarba, leader of the Rhinelander First United Methodist Church youth group, and his team were excited about their victory.
"We're very excited about it because it was something the kids were really excited to be part of and motivated and it's something we thought about all year what we were going to do for CANtastic again," he said.
This is their fourth year participating in the event. Kotarba said the team was not surprised to win Most Cans Used, as they had made that a goal, but they were surprised to receive Judges' Choice.
"That little engine is really cute so I thought they were going to get it, so we were really surprised (to receive Judges' Choice)," he said.
This is the first time Rhinelander First United Methodist Church has won a double award, and while winning is nice, Kotarba said he just enjoys supporting the food pantry.
"My favorite part of it is getting the youth of our church and our congregation excited about supporting the food pantry and just trying to bring awareness to the food pantry in our community as well," he said.
This year there were 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.
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 go to the pantry.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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