Annual CanStructure Contest (Youth Volunteer Corps of Hampton Roads)

What combines creativity, design, and giving back? The annual Can-Structure competition held each year on the Virginia Peninsula! Youth from all over Hampton Roads are invited to get involved and form (or join) a team. Team registration is open until March 1st!

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 at either their school (grades K-5) or at Patrick Henry Mall (grades 6-12).

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: “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”

Where:

• All elementary teams will build their canstructure at their respective school site. YVCHR staff will coordinate a time/date to visit each school to record each team’s presentation the week before. Winners will be announced at Center Court at Patrick Henry Mall on 4/26 during the awards ceremony.

• All middle and high school teams will gather on Saturday, April 26th to build their canstructures in designated work sites at Patrick Henry Mall. We are excited to revive the traditional format for this competition so that students’ hard work and creativity will be displayed for the community to appreciate!

When: The competition deadline will be Saturday, April 26, 2024

To Benefit: All donations for this event will ultimately go to the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank

Contact: Questions? Want to get involved? Email programdirector@yvchr.org or call (757) 223-7078

Description: The goal of the Canstructure Competition is threefold: first and foremost, we activate K-12 students in a project to help combat hunger and food insecurity in Hampton Roads. Second, teams utilize real-world STEM concepts to design and build a “canstructure” from donated canned goods (all of which are donated to the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank). Third, we raise funds and awareness for YVCHR! We are a nonprofit organization that is committed to providing youth with hands-on opportunities to make a difference in their community through educational and rewarding service projects, leadership programs, and team-building activities.

More Information on Youth Volunteer Corps of Hampton Roads and this specific event can be found on this link: www.yvchr.org or by emailing programdirector@yvchr.org