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Calling all K-12 students! Youth Volunteer Corps of Hampton Roads is recruiting teams of elementary, middle and high school students to participate in this year’s Canstructure Competition, a STEM-inspired, team-based challenge that will help provide thousands of meals to local families experiencing food insecurity. Each year, this event activates youth from across our community to help address the issue of hunger while also providing an outlet for their creativity.
What is a CANstructure? A canstructure is a unique work of art that is created by collecting hundreds—sometimes thousands!—of canned food items, which are then used to design and build a 3-dimensional structure that relates to this year’s theme: Connecting Worlds Through Literature!
How do teams compete? Teams will meet to plan and brainstorm their canstructure design and to determine their strategy for collecting canned food donations. Teams may conduct food drives, solicit donations from local businesses or raise funds to purchase the cans needed to build their structure. Once the team has acquired their “building materials,” they will sort, wrap, and carefully stack the cans to create their canstructure. This year’s event will again be a hybrid event; elementary teams will build their structures at their schools (presentations will be recorded), and middle and high school teams will build their canstructures at Patrick Henry Mall on April 26, 2025 (presentations will be live). All teams are invited to attend the awards ceremony at Center Court @ 2:30pm on 4/26. Winning teams will receive trophies…but best of all, thousands of pounds of food will be donated to the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank!
Want more info? Visit www.yvchr.org/canstructure2025 for competition guidelines and rules, as well as the judging criteria. Register your team by February 14th! All teams will receive a detailed toolkit upon registration. Questions? Contact PJ Davis via email (programdirector@yvchr.org) or call/text 757-647-3988.
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