Community Foundation’s LEAD Council Announces Winners of Third ‘Canstruction’ Competition
Apr 15, 2025 03:16PM ● By Nicole Petrus
WATERTOWN — The Northern New York Community Foundation’s LEAD Council is pleased to announce the winners of its third “Canstruction for Northern New York” contest to help reduce food insecurity across the region.
Nine teams combined to collect more than 6,000 canned goods and other nonperishable food items or hygiene products that will help restock school-based backpack programs and community food pantries in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties. Additionally, the winning teams will share $1,500 in grant awards to present to two different school-based backpack programs that participants selected. With nearly 600 votes cast, Carthage Middle School’s Builders Club & Student Government entry is the “People’s Choice Award” winner for its sculpture titled “Let Your Love Flow.” The class also won the “Top Collection Award” with 3,219 canned goods and other nonperishable items collected. Carthage Middle School Classroom Teaching Assistant Alicia Anderson led efforts to rally student participation from each of the district’s buildings in the competition.
Ms. Anderson said her students embraced the challenge and held a competition to motivate classes throughout the school to help collect food and hygiene items for use in their sculpture. “Working on canstruction this year was a lot of fun. Our club made posters to get everyone involved and we had a competition to get students excited. Almost every classroom participated, and our top three classes each collected more than 300 cans,” eighth-grade club members Finn Anderson, Kyle Schardt, and Catherine Wilay said. “It feels good to know that we are able to help the community and that our whole school was involved.”
South Jefferson’s Junior National Honor Society is the winner of the “Best Design Award” for its “canstruction” of “Walk a Mile in Someone Else’s Shoes.” The sculpture of a giant Converse sneaker challenges observers to put themselves in the shoes of our neighbors in need.
South Jefferson Instructional Coach and Junior National Honor Society co-advisor Leslie Robare said it was “truly inspiring” to watch “students take full ownership of the Canstruction project.” “They tapped into their creativity, collaborated, and designed something incredible,” Ms. Robare said. “None of it would have been possible without the generosity of our community, which always comes to gether to support our can drive and our students.”
Each of the nine participating teams will donate all items used to build their sculptures to a local food pantry or backpack program while award winners will each receive a $500 grant for participants to distribute to a nonprofit of their choice.
Carthage Middle School’s Builders Club & Student Government students designated the district’s “Comet Closet” backpack program to receive their collected items. Students also selected the backpack program as the recipient of two $500 grant awards they won for the “People’s Choice Award” and the “Top Collection Award.”
South Jefferson’s Junior National Honor Society students designated the district’s Backpack Program, which supports students and families on the weekends, to receive the hundreds of food items they collected as well as the $500 grant for the “Best Design Award.”
Other teams participating in this year’s competition include: Clarkson University’s American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Chapter with “Golden Knight;” Exceptional Kids and Family Therapies, Evans Mills, with “Month of the Military Child;” North Country Children’s Museum, Potsdam, with “Angry Betty;” South Jefferson Central School’s JCC Edge Class with “Together we CAN stop childhood hunger;” Thousand Islands Central School’s National Honor Society with “Thousand Islands Pride;” Watertown City School District’s Sherman Elementary with “Sherman Sharks;” and Watertown City School District’s Wiley Intermediate School with “Watertown Can-Dium!”
“Canstruction for Northern New York” encouraged tri-county students to team up and build a fun, themed structure made of donated canned food and other nonperishable food items or hygiene products to support a local food pantry or backpack program of their choice and help reduce food insecurity across the region.
Participating students had a chance to support essential needs for tri-county residents while learning values of community philanthropy and building school spirit around a project that made a meaningful difference in the lives of others. The project helped raise awareness about hunger and food insecurity in local communities and empowered students to collaborate and inspire their school and community.
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About the LEAD Council
The LEAD Council was chartered in 2014 as a Community Foundation advisory committee empowered to identify and address strategic needs in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties while making meaningful investments through community grants and volunteerism.
The Council is comprised of 22 young professionals who live and work in the tri-county area with an interest in enhancing the quality of life for all in the North Country. LEAD is an acronym that reflects four important guiding principles of the Community Foundation’s work: Leadership, Engagement, Access, and Direction.
The Council works to gain a deeper understanding of community needs, issues, and the nonprofit sector to augment the Community Foundation’s mission and work. Since its inception, the LEAD Council has developed several creative initiatives to benefit the community and region. Strategic efforts include its “LEADing the Way” volunteer program, enhancements to child care and early childhood development programs, hyper-local support for anti-poverty initiatives, community giving challenges, and building philanthropic values in the region’s schools through student-led projects.
The LEAD Council and its grant program are supported through the thoughtful generosity of the Hyde-Stone Charitable Foundation of the Northern New York Community Foundation, Carthage Savings and Loan Association, Morgia Wealth Management, and donors to the Community Foundation’s Friends of the Foundation Community Betterment Annual Fund.
About the Northern New York Community Foundation
Since 1929, the Northern New York Community Foundation has invested in improving and enriching the quality of life for all in communities across Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties. Through partnerships with businesses and organizations, charitable foundations, and generous families and individual donors, the Community Foundation awards grants and scholarships from an endowment and collection of funds that benefit the region. Its commitment to donors helps individuals achieve their charitable objectives now and for generations to come by preserving and honoring legacies of community philanthropy while inspiring others.The Community Foundation is a resource for local charitable organizations, donors, professional advisors and nonprofit organizations. It also works to bring people together at its permanent home in the Northern New York Philanthropy Center to discuss challenges our communities face and find creative solutions that strengthen the region and make it a great place to live, work, and play.
