The Montana Food Bank Network recently held its CANstruction and it was a great success!  The display at Southgate Mall helped us draw attention to hunger in our state and MFBN's role in fighting it.  Our generous participants donated more than 16,000 pounds of nutritious food for their neighbors. All food came to MFBN's warehouse and will be distributed to Partner Agencies around the state.   

Mayor Engen stopped by the event to recognize participants, distribute trophies, and share comments from the guest judges.  This year's guest judges included:  Gretchen Iman of Eclipse Engineering, Dennis Johnson of A&E Architects and Molly Murphy - contemporary sculptural native beadwork artist. 
 
Highlights of the structures include:
 
"Griz Medicine" - CTA Architects Engineers teamed up with Upward Bound to create two structures - the first structure was a Native American medicine wheel of four colors which point in four directions: north (mental), south (emotional), east (spiritual), and west (physical).  This structure won the "Best Use of Labels" award, and judges said that the structure "was worth the 'Best Use of Labels' award as it was the only structure truly dependent on the color of its labels.  The structure may seem easier than the others, but in fact was more complicated due to the height of it.  Great work!"
 
"The Roller Coaster of Life" - CTA Architects Engineers and Upward Bound's second structure was a roller coaster and the structure represented the fact that there was always ups and downs in life, but be sure to enjoy the ride.  This structure won the "Juror's Favorite" award, and judges said that the structure "was well executed!  It had interesting angles and we loved the park in the middle, what attention to detail!  Great work!"
 
"A River Runs Through It" - OZ Architects teamed up with the Missoula Organization of Realtors to create this structure which represented Mount Jumbo, Mount Sentinel, the "M" and the "L", the Clark Fork River and a hang glider.  This structure won the "Most Creative" award, and judges said that the structure "was quite a creative way to use a can of tuna fish!  We appreciated your idea to contour the mountains and liked that you added in 'animals' on the mountains.  Well done!"
 
"On Track to End Hunger" - The Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation created this structure to represent a Montana Rail Link boxcar carrying a load of nutritious food.  This structure was given the "Structural Ingenuity" award, and judges said that the structure "was cool!  This was a great commitment to an idea and structurally sound.  What a tremendous contribution you have made by the amount of cans used.  Well done!"
 
The public had the opportunity to vote on their favorite structure, and this year's "People's Choice" award, taking 63% of the votes, was "The Roller Coaster of Life" - congratulations to Upward Bound for winning this additional award! 
 
Thank you to all teams for creating such unique and interesting structures!  And thank you to all partners, sponsors, and the Southgate Mall who helped make MFBN's 1st CANstruction Event a success!  We hope to see you again next year!

All photos and videos by Kristine Paulsen, www.kristinepaulsenphotography.com