Spectrum 3847, St. Agnes Academy & Strake Jesuit Preparatory high school students, use their engineering design skills to “blast away hunger” at the annual CANstruction Houston Design Build Competition benefiting the Houston Food Bank
(Houston, TX) “Houston, we have a problem. While the concept of hunger is alien to some, it doesn’t take the Hubble Telescope to see it’s effects on our community. Hunger isn’t light years away – everyday around 66,000 Houstonians are hungry and without food. This year, Spectrum’s theme is “Blasting Away Hunger” and Spectrum 3847 is partnering with the Houston Food Bank to reach this goal.
The annual event benefits the Houston Food Bank — all of the canned goods used in the sculptures go to the food bank at the end of the show. “Spectrum 3847 enjoys being part of the CANstruction competition.We have chosen to champion the problem of hunger in our local community where one in four children is at risk of hunger. In an effort to raise local awareness, the team annually participates in CANstruction, competing against high school teams, architecture and engineering firms to build sculptures out of canned goods. We spent three months designing the layout in CAD before the build day.” said Spectrum 3847 Head Coach Allen Gregory IV. “Spectrum’s participation has secured 18,000+ cans for the Houston Food Bank over the past six years and we have won the “Best High School” award twice. We are grateful to WGW Architects, Inc. for sponsoring our team.“
The Canstruction competition provided hands on leadership experience for high school students. “It was really rewarding to be able to lead this project” says Spectrum 3847 Senior Project Manager Jose Martinez. “At first, telling what my friends to do was weird. But after several meetings I got comfortable, and the team got more involved. It’s really cool to see something that we’ve been planning for over a month come completely to life like this.”
Spectrum 3847’s over six foot rocket is on display in City Centre One along with with sculptures crafted from cans of food by Houston architects, builders, high school teams, and engineers as part of AIA’s Houston’s 2017 Canstruction competition. CITYCENTRE district is the host venue for Canstruction® Houston, Inc. a one-of-a-kind design and build competition benefiting the Houston Food Bank.
CANSTRUCTION
Canstruction, Inc. is a national charity of the design and construction industry created by the Society for Design Administration. For millions, each day begins and ends with the anguish of hunger. Canstruction, a charity sponsored by the design and construction industry, is determined to end this suffering. Canstruction is a design/build competition showcasing the talents of design and construction industry professionals and students they mentor. During the next week, the super-sized masterpieces are judged in a variety of categories as these unconventional art exhibits are opened to the public, the cost of admission – just one can of food.
SPECTRUM #3847
Spectrum is an award winning FIRST Robotics team #3847 made up of high school students from St. Agnes Academy and Strake Jesuit College Preparatory two Catholic college preparatory schools in southwest Houston, Texas. St. Agnes is all-girls, and Strake Jesuit is all-boys. https://www.spectrum3847.org. For more information about Spectrum #3847, visit www.spectrum3847.org or contact Spectrum FRC #3847 Mentor, Allen Gregory IV, at Allen.Gregory.IV@gmail.com.
# # #
“Blasting Away Hunger” sculpture. Spectrum 3847, St. Agnes Academy & Strake Jesuit Preparatory students, use their engineering design skills to combat hunger at the CANstruction Houston Design Build Competition benefiting the Houston Food Bank
Left to right: Damian Barrientos, Jose Martinez, David Baula, Sarah Rogers, Jakob Wittry, Allen Gregory, Alex Carlson, Darren Nguyen, Elaine Fung, Lily Hoefner, Sophie Hoefner, Jeff Weissling
POSTER
“Houston, we have a problem. While the concept of hunger is alien to some, it doesn’t take the Hubble Telescope to see it’s effects on our community. Hunger isn’t light years away – everyday around 66,000 Houstonians are hungry and without food. This year, Spectrum’s theme is “blasting away hunger” and Spectrum is partnering with the Houston Food Bank to reach this goal. Because healthy food is astronomically expensive in 2017, our team used over 1,400 cans create a 6 foot high rocket! The cans will provide families across Houston with nutritious meals. We have launched our plan to end hunger in Houston and hopefully, one day, hunger will be destroyed with a big bang.”
Source: Spectrum
