The build out began Tuesday, the judges make their decisions Wednesday, and the largest fundraiser for the Regional Inter-Faith Association – Canstruction – concludes with an awards dinner, which will be held at 6 p.m., at the Carl Perkins Civic Center, Thursday, featuring three-time Dove Award winners Shane & Shane.

“We have 13 teams (consisting) of businesses, industries and youth groups that are participating and building their giant structures made completely out of can food items,” said Lindsay Dawkins, marketing and events coordinator at RIFA, “All the food used in the structures goes back to RIFA, and we are able to use that to provide Thanksgiving and Christmas food boxes to those who are hungry in our community.”

In 2017, 13 teams participated in Canstruction, and 31,000 pounds of canned goods was donated to the Jackson non-profit.

Gerdau used 11 people to design and build an hour glass while incorporating the board game Boggle for its entry in Canstruction’s 14th annual event.

NOTE: For those unfamiliar with Boggle, players have three minutes shown by the countdown timer to find as many words as they can in the grid, according to the following rules: The letters must be adjoining in a ‘chain.’ Letter cubes in the chain may be adjacent horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Words must contain at least three letters.

Tim Suiter, a Gerdau team member, said about 2,000 cans of tuna – different varieties – 320 boxes of crackers, 500 boxes of pasta and 80 bags of rice were used to construct ‘It’s boggling how much time it’s taken to stop hunger.’

“It took about two hours to construct the hour glass,” Tim said. “It’s challenging, and coming up with a (different) theme and design is getting harder, but it’s a good activity for team building.”

(PHOTO: Gerdau team members from left Dallas Sanders, Erik Aubuchon, Tim Suiter and Seth Appleton)
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