Rotaract at CU members, (l to r) sophomore electrical engineering major Philip Terry, junior psychology and education double major Erika Petersen and sophomore international affairs major Genevieve Smith, touch up their creation for the Buffalo Can Challenge in Carlson Gym Friday. Their entry won second place. (CU Independent/Lee Pruitt)
The work of countless students who collected cans for the Buffalo Can Challenge will be tallied by the Community Food Share organization and the total number accumulated will be announced sometime next week, said Peter Simons, director of the Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement.
This year marks the third year that the Buffalo Can Challenge has been bringing together different groups on campus with the common goal of raising food for the homeless population of Boulder County, according to the challenge’s Web site.
Simons said that this year is the first year that the challenge has asked for both cans and monetary donations.
“This is the first year we’ve been actually taking monetary donations because Community Food Share could use money more than cans because for $1 with their buying power they can pay for four meals,” Simons said.
The challenge is put on by the Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement, the Volunteer Resource Center and is partnered with Community Food Share, Bell Corporation and Safeway, as detailed on the Web site.
Not only are cans collected throughout buildings on campus to be donated, but student groups sign up to participate in a competition in which they construct sculptures out of cans which are also then donated, Simons said.
Nine different groups carried their cans into Carlson Gym to construct their sculptures. Just some of the participants include the Sewall Hall Council, Volunteer Resource Center, Greek Life and Architecture and Planning Student Government and others.
The level of participation from students is one of the exciting aspects of the event, Simons said.
“The best thing is seeing the enthusiasm of the students,” Simons said. “The ones who come in to do this are very committed—they want to do this.”
Dana Munson, a 21-year-old senior psychology and communication major, is constructing a miniature Folsom Field out of cans for the Greek Life team.
Munson said the participation of students associated with the Greek community exceeded her expectations.
“For me, going to the houses and being shocked at the amount of cans that everyone had was great,” Munson said. “I expected a hundred or something and I went to the first house and they had like 1,200.”
Silas Titte, a 20-year-old sophomore evolutionary biology, said that organizing the event was a lot of work but enjoyable nonetheless.
“It takes so much work trying to coordinate with all the different parts of campus but that’s part of the best part,” Titte said. “It’s so much connection and communion between all the different parts of campus. We had to work with Greek life, the Recreation Center, Housing and Dining Services and Greek life.”
Natalie Box, a 20 year-old junior integrative physiology major, is participating in the event not by being affiliated with any student group, but by organizing her own team, Team Can Do.
Box said she and four other friends coordinated gathering cans on their own for the challenge, and collected over 300 cans for their Loch Ness Monster sculpture.
“We put flyers on doors and set up times to go back and pick up cans,” Box said. “[Teammate Autumn Bjugstad] had a party where admission was a can. It just came together.”
Is Chaker, a 19-year-old sophomore architecture major and the president of the Architecture and Planning Student Government, said that being a part of the event goes naturally with the goals of her organization for the year.
“Our whole goal this year for our student organization is raising as much for charity as possible,” Chaker said. “We held a canned food drive coordinated earlier this year and a fund-raiser for Haiti where we raised $500. We thought it would be the perfect opportunity to give back again.”
Titte said that holding the challenge during the Conference on World Affairs has proved beneficial in working to collect as many cans as possible.
“It’s awesome this year that it’s been on Conference on World Affairs,” Titte said. “A man brought like seven boxes of cans because he saw the information online.”
Simons said there are four judges this year including Assistant Dean of Students Gardiner Tucker.
The winning team will be given $500 that they can donate to a charity of their choice, Simons said.
Simons said that the Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement is grateful to work to remedy problems in such a positive way.
“That’s the great thing about the stuff we do,” Simons said. “It’s helping students, it makes their education better, it helps the community and it’s all very positive. We’re dealing with serious problems but it’s a very positive way of dealing with it.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sarah Simmons at Sarah.e.simmons@colorado.edu.
