Can do: Students spend months preparing for Saturday's Canstruction

IOWA CITY - Cases of canned goods - pork and beans, chili beans and green beans - are stacked in towers on the stage. South East Junior High School's Art Club students stand near piles, flipping through pages of diagrams depicting how the cans will become Mike Wazowski from “Monsters, Inc.”

A large diagram of the first level of cans is placed on the stage floor. The students open the cases of canned goods and begin building.

“Everyone, make sure the cans face out!” one student shouts over the activity.

As more cans are added to the sculpture, Mike Wazowski's image becomes clearer. As far as practice sessions go, Monday's is considered a success.

Today, South East students will be constructing Mike Wazowski again. This time as one of nine student/community teams participating in the Seventh Annual Corridor Canstruction at Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville. Six professional teams also will be competing.

“It's always exciting to see everything come together,” says Lydia Fine, a Corridor Canstruction committee member.

For South East students, today caps off three months of preparation, beginning with school fundraisers to collect the money to pay for the food used in their sculpture.

The students brainstormed sculpture ideas and bought the 2,364 cans of food from a local Hy-Vee. Then there's the build itself.

“Last year's build was like a cylinder, so it was pretty easy,” says Devon Morrison, 14.

The eighth grade student was part of the team that took “Best in Show” in the student/community group in 2011 for their R2-D2 sculpture. The students are determined to keep their title, plus take home the coveted “People's Choice” award.

The public determines the People's Choice winner by dropping quarters in the voting box near the can sculpture of their choice. This money also benefits local food shelters.

There is a “People Choice” winner for both the professional and student/community groups.

“I don't think people realize that this isn't just for fun,” Devon says. “It's to help people who don't have enough to eat. Some may think ‘Hey, that looks cool' and that's great, but what we're really doing is helping feed people.”

Last year's Canstruction event collected 18,589 pounds of food for local food pantries, crisis centers and shelters.

This is the fourth year South East has had a team compete. The 2010 team received “Most Whimsical” for their Oscar the Grouch sculpture and “Honorable Mention” in 2009.

“It's a service project for the whole school,” says Rachael Arnone, South East's art teacher.

About 30 kids from Art Club will work in shifts of five people each to complete the sculpture, but Arnone said the entire project involves relies on support from the school community to raise the money to fund it.

This year's design will be more than 7-feet-tall when it is finished and will weigh 2,216.25 pounds.

Seventh-grader Mackie Welter plans to be at the build all day today, hanging out with the Rohrbach Associates PC team when she isn't working on South East's design. Mackie's father used to work at Rohrbach, so she has experience helping a professional team, but is ready to be a member of the student team.

“I just love being around the cans and fitting them together to make a design work,” Mackie, 12, says. “It takes a while, but it is so cool when it's finished.”