Canstruction 2006!

This past weekend the company I work for participated in the first ever Hawaii Canstruction competition. What is Canstruction? It is an event sponsored by the American Institute of Architects where Architectural and Engineering companies build structures using canned foods to raise awareness of hunger. After the competition is over, the cans used for construction will be donated to the Hawaiian Food Bank.

17 firms entered this year's competition held at Uptown Pearlridge. There were some very original ideas and some very lame ones, I must say. Our company's model was of a rubber slipper stamping on a cockroach which was our way of saying "Stamp Out Hunger". Here are the stages of construction....(Disclaimer: I had absolutely nothing to do with our company's model since I declined to join the team. I was just there giving support and to lift heavy things once in a while)

The paper layout of our masterpiece.
Building the foundation.....
The slipper takes shape...
The finished product! Notice the upside down parfait cups used as the "guts" of the cockroach!
Here were some of the other displays....

Some kind of Pokemon character? All Vienna Sausage cans...no creativity...
Spam = boring. I think these guys took like an only 2 hours out of the allowed 6. I wonder why...
The pineapple was pretty cool...
I thought this one of one of those good luck cat statues was pretty good...
I had to stare at this one for about a minute before I finally figured out what it was - Hokuleia?
Hula girl...
A fish...
Another fish...
A bed with Hawaiian quilt...
Our model won the Juror's Award for "Best Meal" because our combination of baked beans, olives, pineapples, sardines, Vienna Sausage, and parfaits represented the best overall and nutritous meal.

Some of the models...I had no idea what they were. And there were 2 companies that had 90% Vienna Sausage. Aw come on! You can do better than that! (By the way, if anyone reading this blog works for one of the companies I slammed here, sorry!) One of the models (*cough*Castle & Cooke!*cough*) actually collapsed about 10 minutes after the final horn sounded. I kind of felt sorry for them....kind of. Don't know if I wanna buy one of their homes now! LOL

These displays will be up for another 2 weeks at Pearlridge and you can vote for your favorite to determine the People's Choice Award! Just bring a can of food down the mall and you'll be able to cast your vote. So don't forget to vote for the slippah and the cock-a-roach!