Canned food drive competition hauls in volunteers, donations

Students from OU Intervarsity Christian Fellowship plan their construction of a clicker pen for iCantribute on Friday. (PHOTO/Zack Hedrick)

  OU student organizations spent Friday, Nov. 12 building structures out of cans for community service group Circle K International's first iCantribute canned food drive competition.

Chi Omega's winning structure.
(PHOTO /Alexis Tautel)

   The drive, which was moved to the Cate Main Social Lounge due to rain concerns, was presented with Campus Activity Council's Winter Welcome Week. Circle K donated all of the cans that were used in the competition to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.
   "We [in Circle K] just wanted to come up with a clever way to collect food for a food bank," Circle K freshman representative Alexis Taitel said. "[iCantribute] a good way to get different groups organized and excited about collecting food because they can compete with each other and see who can build the best construction."
   Six groups built structures made out of collected cans such as a castle, a ship, an Etch-a-Sketch, or an organization symbol. Structures were judged on creativity, appearance and overall presentation. Four other campus organizations, including the LGBTQ and Resident Student Association, donated cans directly to the drive.

Pi Kappa Phi's castle structure, which won second place.

(PHOTO/Alex Ewald)

   Sorority Chi Omega won first for its structure of an owl, the sorority's symbol. Fraternity Pi Kappa Phi won second for its castle that featured a makeshift draw-bridge, knight pictures and turreted towers, because the rules called for structures "as sturdy as possible," a member of the fraternity said.
   Pi Kappa Phi philanthropy chairman Evan Fry said the organization wanted to participate in iCantribute because it was a groundbreaking, new event that involved the entire campus.
   "We want to show that fraternities and sororities, while they may seem exclusive to a lot of people, we're really involved with life on campus and we don't just want to stay within the greek community," said Fry, University College freshman.
   Jen Herrmann of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship said the group recognized the importance of helping those in need during the holiday season. Hermann said Intervarsity, which won for most cans, collected more than 700 cans to build its structure of a clicker pen.
   "I think obviously it's really important to help out people who don't have the resources to have the holidays like the rest of us do," said Hermann, professional writing and film and video studies sophomore.

Hermann explains why Intervarsity made a clicker pen for its structure:

   Taitel said the event was successful because of this very reason for helping the less fortunate during the holiday season, so the group plans to have the event again next year.
   "We made some mistakes, but we will take what we learned and create an even better event next year," she said. "The most important goal was to raise food for people in need, and since we certainly accomplished that, I think that we were successful."
   For its next community service project, Circle K International is planning a book drive.
   More photos of all the structures from iCantribute will be up later this week on Circle K International's Facebook page.

Boxes of canned food lined up at Friday's iCantribute, which was organized by Circle K International. 
(PHOTO/Zack Hedrick)