On October 16, Orlando Fashion Square will host the 18th annual CANSTRUCTION® – Orlando competition. During the competition,13 teams consisting of top local architects, engineers, contractors, designers, Girl Scout Troops, and high schools will gather to design and build spectacular giant-sized objects, approximately 8’ x 8’ x 8’, made entirely from canned and nonperishable foods.

This year’s theme? Wonders of the World!

The WONDERful structures will stay up at Orlando Fashion Square all week long until Sunday, October 23rd. So if you can’t make it to the build on Sunday…you have the whole week to stop by!

Awards

It is a competition after all! A panel of distinguished judges from the community decides the winning structures in five different categories: Best Meal, Structural Ingenuity, Best Use of Labels, Juror’s Favorite, and two Honorable Mentions. In addition to the primary awards we have a variety of local awards, all of which will be handed out at our evening celebration event on October 20. The Rotary Club of Orlando will be offering prizes for the school competition.

Do you want to help one of the teams win “The People’s Choice” Award? When visiting the structure at Orlando Fashion Square, be sure to vote for your favorite Canstruction by scanning their QR code with your smartphone! How cool is that?

NEW THIS YEAR: The Rotary Club of Orlando Gets Involved!

The Rotary Club of Orlando has added a new category to this year’s competition for students in greater Orlando’s high schools. . The Club has recruited eight high school teams to compete for prizes in a best school spirit category and will help with materials and mentorship. High school students will contribute their time, talents, and energies to collect cans of food to assemble sculptures that successfully represent the spirit of the school. This project is designed to support the principle of Rotary International: Service Above Self through its commitment to youth, alleviating hunger, and community service.

Participating high schools include: Oviedo, Timber Creek, Jones, Dr. Phillips, Apopka, Wekiva, and Edgewater.

High school teams compete only against other high school teams for prizes. Best Sculpture Awards will be given to the schools sponsoring a first place team and two additional finalists totaling $700 ($500 first place and $100 each for the two other finalists).

So what is the purpose?

The purpose of the design competition is to bring the community together to address the issue of hunger. At the close of the exhibit, all of the food products used in the structures is donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida for distribution to pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, senior programs and low-income daycares.

“We collected more than 20,000 food items in 2010, and it went a long way toward helping Central Floridians in need,” said chair of Canstruction and partner at Burke, Hogue Mills, Inc., a Lake Mary-based architecture and interior design firm, Deborah Rusnock.

Why Second Harvest LOVES Canstruction?

• All the food will go straight to helping our neighbors in need.
• Awareness! Mall goers have to stop and check out the beautiful structures and in turn…learn a thing or two about hunger in our community.
• It’s free art exhibit for our community.
• Gets our community involved in a new and exciting way.
• It is so much and fun and so amazing to look at!!

We just want to thank all of the 18 teams involved this year. We know the task isn’t easy but we are all excited to see the finished Canstructions! Also, a huge thank you to the Canstruction Orlando Committee led by Deborah Rusnock. They have worked so hard to put on this fantastic event for Orlando.

So are you excited yet? Because we sure are! Definitely come out to Orlando Fashion Square Sunday, October 16 – Sunday, October 23 so you can be amazed by the “Wonder of the World” all made out of cans. You won’t want to miss it!

Sasha Hausman
Development Manager

Aycha Williams, Fashion Chair of Second Harvest’s Wine Women & Shoes, gives us an update on the fashion show. We are so excited that Wine Women & Shoes is less than 2 weeks away! 

Last week, I wrote about how we put all the moving parts together for Wine, Women & Shoes Fashion Show, benefiting Second Harvest Food Bank. I had mentioned that we received far-reaching support and help from our local businesses of Winter Park and greater Orlando.  

Today, I would like to introduce  our models that will all be donating their time and positive energy on the day of the event; walking the catwalk with the season’s must-have looks from Ginger Boutique at Winter Park village, Jacobson’s on Park Avenue and Black House, White Market at Alta Monte Mall.

I would like to introduce first three of our nine models:

Linda Mottram
Linda is a mother of two beautiful girls, Marley age 4 and Ivy, 16 months and is originally from Pennsylvania. After graduating from Penn State University, Linda moved to Orlando in 1992 and she says she fell in love with the city, its friendly people, not the mention the warm climate. Linda worked in legal industry in Orlando where she also met her husband, Jeff and they settled in Winter Park where they raise their beautiful daughters. She is now a stay at home mom, she loves to travel and to learn about other cultures. As a very stylish beautiful woman, she says she has always had a passion for fashion. Linda volunteers for charitable causes on a regular basis. 

Sissy DeMuth
Sissy is has lived in Winter Park for the most part of her life and is a graduate of Rollins College. She is a general contractor by trade and has her own company, DeMuth Renovations, specializing on residential and commercial construction and renovations. Her passion is helping the disabled veterans where she teaches art classes and facilitates memory games once a week for over 10 years now. Before that; she has volunteered for American Red Cross since she was 14 years old. After hearing the focus of her volunteer work, I was not surprised to learn that Sissy gears her business towards residential modifications to accommodate people with disabilities. Sissy is certified in all surrounding counties and states, needless to mention that her company is a woman owned business. She models from time to time, and said she is very glad to be of help for our event.

Kelcie Richter
Kelcie is young model in training as well as a college student and was referred to us through the Maile School of Acting and Modeling. She was born and raised in Orlando and her new modeling career includes runway shows in Mall of Millenia. Kelcie’s other interests are dancing, music and the beach. She has a very warm, sweet personality and said that she is more than happy to offer her time to model for our event.

We could not have put this fashion show together without the help of:

Urban Blonde Salon and Eclips Salon & Spa: both local businesses in Orlando. They both graciously offered to donate their services to create the looks of our models. Kristen, with Urban Blonde Salon and Colleen Baker, owner of Eclips Salon & Spa along with her head make-up artist Melissa Sorrano, will arrive in teams of four and help style our models before the event. We are thankful for their support and contribution.

Follow us in the next few days as I will be continue to introduce our models; a business woman, a cancer survivor mother of two, a local doctor and a professional model. Upcoming blog will also talk about our DJ, Clinton and his passion for music.

If you haven’t purchased your tickets yet for Wine, Women and Shoes on April 23rd, there may be a few left! Event and ticket info: www.winewomenandshoes.com/secondharvest

Aycha Williams
Fashion Chair
Wine, Women & Shoes

Here we are, 3 weeks away from Second Harvest Food Bank’s very first Wine Women & Shoes fundraising event.  I’m sure you’ve heard by now about the fabulous food, fashion, wine and shopping that will be featured!  What you may or may not be aware of are the amazing auctions and raffles that we are hosting.

First, you will be able to browse our wonderful display of silent auction items.  We will have everything from mini vacations and spa gift certificates to a collection of wines from each of the wineries in attendance.  If you’re feeling a little guilty about having such a wonderful “you” day, not to worry, we’ll also have items for your children, pets and husbands!

After you’ve put your name down on all of the exciting bid sheets, head over to our one of a kind raffle.  You’ll have the chance to win the “Keys to the Closet!”  What’s this you ask?  We have created a woman’s dream closet in the corner of the ballroom featuring a gift certificate to California Closets (closet make over in your near future!?), shoes, jewelry, handbags, a hotel stay, a spa day, a trip to the salon, shopping gift certificates from local boutiques, etc… We will draw the winning key and this lucky lady gets to take home all of the contents of her new closet!  Sound too good to be true? Well IT’S NOT!  Someone will win this the day of the event!  It could be you!

Finally, we are thrilled to host our first live auction.  Thanks to American Fundraising Auctions we have a premier and beautifully simple live auction coming your way.  We’re not just offering trips, we’re offering “bucket list” trips.  For example, many people travel to France, but on this trip, the two of you will delve deep into the excitement and romance of classical Europe.  You begin in Paris.  By day, you’ll have a spectacular lunch atop the Eiffel Tower and enjoy exclusive behind the scenes entrée into the salons of the world’s best Haute Couture designers with your own private Parisian shopper.  By night, take a cruise down the River Seine before you cuddle to sleep in your soft feather bed in your private pensione near the Champs Élysées.  After three romantic nights in Paris, you’re off to the spectacular chateaus of the Loire Valley wine country.  Each day will be a new adventure of private tastings at boutique wineries along wandering roads. Medieval castles dot the landscape and quaint restaurants serve the freshest food grown right there in the French countryside.  In all, you’ll enjoy an incredible seven days, six nights savoring the best sights, sounds, tastes and pleasures France has to offer.  Complete with round trip air… and a million memories. We’ll have more trips just as unbelievable as this.  Spoiler alert** Napa Valley, Costa Del Sol Spain, the Coast of Maine and Tuscany.

Excited yet?

Hurry up and reserve your spot today, tickets are going fast!  http://www.WineWomenandShoes.com/SecondHarvest

Sheyanne Cohron
Event Specialist

Aycha Williams is Fashion Chair of Second Harvest’s Wine Women & Shoes Orlando event. We asked her to get with her committee and to write about the experience they have had putting together the fashion show for this exciting event. Wine Women & Shoes will take place on Saturday, April 23, 2011 at the Royal Plaza Hotel.

As volunteers for Second Harvest Food Bank’s Wine, Women & Shoes event, the fashion show committee has been working non-stop for a fabulous Fashion Show! We have been received so well by the community’s local businesses and by Orlando’s fashion industry.  Everyone we talked to was more than willing and excited to contribute and support the cause.

First step for the fashion show was to decide on our fashion partners. We partnered mostly with Orlando’s local businesses for the looks for the fashion show. This way; while helping Second Harvest’s cause of putting an end to hunger in Central Florida we were also able to support the local businesses.

Tammy Giaimo, owner of Jacobson’s at Park Avenue and Aimee Collins-Hitchner owner of Ginger Boutique at Winter Park Village agreed to partner with us for the fashion show. We were also approached by Melanie Sweetland with White House & Black Market Store at Altamonte Mall and were very excited to include them as a part of the event. The fashion show will have this summer’s must have looks as well as a peek into the fall closet of brands such as Escada. So get ready to enjoy an amazing fashion show while tasting some delicious wine from Florida and California’s select wineries.

Next; we started looking for models and once again we were very pleasantly surprised by the interest and support to help.

We walked in to the Maile Image, Modeling and Acting School of Winter Park and received a very warm welcome from Debby Tapia, the Vice President. She put in a request for our criteria and we received some great resumes and headshots to review. The Maile Modeling and Acting School has been working with students and training talent since 1982. The school offers classes in Image & Confidence Development, On Camera Acting, Professional Modeling for children, teens and adults. Some successful graduate Maile School models and actors are Mandy Moore, Vincent Martell on Everybody Hates Chris and as the voice of Phineaus on the popular Disney show Phineaus and Ferb,  and Paul Amadi in hot movie The Blind Side and 2 Miss Americas.

In addition; our own friends, beautiful women with style; business professionals, stay at home mothers all offered to help support our cause. Follow our blog to learn more about our models; we will have more posts about them and their passion to help in the coming days.

A great fashion show comes with great music! Our music will be mixed by DJ Clinton. If you like to dance and have been to Park Avenue club venues for late night dancing then you must know Clinton. He will be the DJ for the complete event and the fashion show.

We also could not have done without: LMG Inc. of Orlando; they have graciously donated the free rental of projectors and lighting, Quest Drapery has provided discounts on the purchase of drapery for the show and finally Video Equipment Rentals-VER, Inc. has donated the free rental of the complete sound system.

Like we said at the beginning; we are more than ready for a fabulous fashion show at Second Harvest’s Wine, Women & Shoes event! Latest fashion trends, beautiful models to be accompanied by great music of today and the 80s… If you have not purchased your tickets yet; you can do so by visiting www.winewomenandshoes.com/second harvest

Check back for more news on the fashion show, our models and about their passion to help end hunger.

Aycha Williams
Fashion Chair
Wine, Women & Shoes

Are you ready to talk a walk on the wild side? We sure hope so! Because Canstruction is back with a new theme for 2010: ZOO CAN DO IT! Canstruction Orlando is teaming up with the Central Florida Zoo to create the best Canstruction yet!

So you might be asking, what in the world is a Canstruction?

Canstruction is a design/build competition currently held throughout cities in North America.  Teams of architects, engineers, and folks from numerous organizations come together to build large structures made entirely from full cans of food.  Since its inception, 10 million pounds of food have been donated to aid in the fight against hunger throughout the nation.

Orlando has produced an event every year since 1994. Over the years we have collected over 306,000 cans, boxes, or bags of food and raised over $37,000 in donations through the People’s Choice award for a favorite structure. We have had strong support from the Design Community and in particular, the Society for Design Administration and the American Institute of Architects.

This year’s 8 fabulous teams have been busy trying to come up with the best zoo themed structure for the event. I am pretty excited to see what everyone has been working on. The build will begin Sunday, October 17th at 9 am at Orlando Fashion Square! You can come out and watch the teams create their masterpieces.

Lions! And tigers! And bears! OH YES! Well kind of…If you come out between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on the 17th, you will be in for a WILD time as the folks at the Central Florida Zoo will be bringing some of their friends over.  You’ll have to come out to Orlando Fashion Square to see what kind of fun furry friends, or creepy creatures will be there.

The structures will be on display at Orlando Fashion Square all week, October 17-24. The teams will receive awards like Best Meal, Best Use of Labels, Jurors’ Favorite, Healthy Award, People’s Choice, and Best Signage.

Would you like to have a say in who wins the People’s Choice Award and have a chance to win a pretty awesome Central Florida Zoo gift pack? Well stop by the mall all week while the structures are up and vote! You will be automatically entered to win a membership to the Central Florida Zoo for a family of 4, a zip line experience for a family of 4, and 4 zoo shirts!

This is the most important part…what happens to the food after the event? On Sunday the 24th, all the teams will get together to break down the structures. The Second Harvest Food Bank truck and staff will be there to load the food and bring it back to the food bank. From there, our trusty volunteers will sort the food and get it ready to go out to a neighbor in need.

The staff over at Second Harvest is going BANANAS over Canstruction 2010: Zoo Can Do It! We just wanted to say a big thanks to all of our teams, team sponsors, and of course our hard working Canstruction Orlando Committee.
               
So quit “lion” around! Make your way out to Orlando Fashion Square to take a look at these amazing structures.  For more information about Canstruction Orlando, please visit www.canstruction-orlando.org

See you there!

Sasha Hausman
Development Manager

Wow, I can’t believe that it is already October! And I couldn’t be happier! The weather is getting cooler, the holiday season is right around the corner, and of course Canstruction is here!

For those of you who are familiar with this amazing event, you know why I am excited. If this is your first time hearing about it, listen up … because it is a site to see!!

Canstruction is a community event where local architects, engineers, planners, contractors, schools,  and churches come together and build 8x8x8 structures out of at least 1,000 canned foods!

This year’s theme is “A City of Cans!” Each team is going to build a structure you will see in a city, for example; a house, school, zoo etc. 

Check out this amazing video made from last year’s build …

So when and where can you see these larger than life structures? I thought you’d never ask!!

Come out to the Fashion Square Mall at the West Course by Sears. The build will take place on Sunday, October 18th and they will stay up until Sunday, October 25th. Also, you are cordially invited to our celebration at the Fashion Square mall on the 22nd at 5:30 pm for our celebration! RSVP Canstruction® Orlando Awards Celebration.

Come out and vote for your favorite structure October 18-25, bring in a food donation (non-perishable!) and you will get put in a drawing for a $200 shopping spree at the Fashion Square Mall!!

There is one last thing we need help with. Forest Lake Academy is building a School for Canstruction. But they need our help with gathering the food to make their structure. Please check out what they need.  If you want to help out Forest Lake, please drop off your food donations to our Food Rescue Center (1918 Princeton St Orlando FL 32804) and ask for Sasha!

I am so excited to watch the city come to life, and I hope you are too! I know that this city of cans will be unlike anything you have ever seen before…so don’t miss out! If you have any questions, let me know.

Don’t forget to visit the Canstruction Web site for full details: http://www.canstruction-orlando.org/

See ya soon!

Sasha Hausman
Events Specialist
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida
2008 Brengle Avenue
Orlando, Fl 32808
407-843-5009. ext. 25
shausman@foodbankcentralflorida.org