'Canstruction' sparks food drive week in Post Falls

POST FALLS - Yes, they can.

Students from New Vision High and both Post Falls middle schools have showed their spirit for the fifth annual Community Spring Food Drive for the food bank by building a castle and a globe out of canned food inside the City Hall rotunda.

The process was called "canstruction."

"It was definitely fun to experience this," said River City Middle School seventh-grader Seth McLeod. "You have more drive if you have a reason to do something."

The features, which include a total of nearly 5,000 cans, will be on display through Friday. They can be viewed by the public and visitors can bring by canned food donations to add to the drive.

The projects are a personal touch to the students' part of the drive, which culminates with the community's portion on Friday at Super 1 and Saturday with several events at Trading Company Store.

Each of Post Falls' schools think of creative ways to generate enthusiasm and food for the drive. The elementary schools are competing in a contest that ends Thursday.

The middle schools' 14-by-14 world display is along a wall inside a shadowbox. Each can was covered in color paper, adding to the students' workload.

"It was an exciting twist to help raise cans," said Marissa Leupold, a Post Falls Middle School eighth-grader.

McLeod said an "unlock the clock" challenge was launched as a way of getting both boys and girls involved in donating food. Clocks in some classes at the schools, the lunchrooms and district office were covered and the only way they could be viewed was if enough cans were raised to unlock them.

"We all look at the clock," he said of the idea to get as many students and staff involved as possible. "It took 1,000 cans to unlock the lunchroom, but we did it in two days."

New Vision's castle is in the middle of the rotunda.

"Everybody had to work together," student Ashley Doneri said. "I also like the fact that we're helping people less fortunate than us."

The projects didn't come without an educational punch.

Ground Force Manufacturing engineer Derrick McLauchlin was among those who assisted students with blueprints and 3-D views of the projects.

"It's a pretty moving experience to see kids this excited about something that helps the community," McLauchlin said. "What was challenging is that the kids had so many different ideas."

Students had to collaborate to solve problems, practice on a mock design at their schools and calculate how it would all come together.

"There was a lot more math involved than we expected," New Vision's Dom Tiffany said.

Organizer Mark Jones said canstruction was a success and likely the start of even better things to come in future years.

"The enthusiasm exists, and there's a lot of interest from other people wanting to be a part of this," he said. "We're just getting our feet wet with the concept. It's exciting to create awareness for hunger with school spirit, and this was the perfect venue to showcase the students' talents."