27th May 2015

The Little Digger that Could

‘Darby the Dusty Digger’, a sculpture made entirely out of cans of food, has been honoured in an international design and build competition.

The first ever New Zealand Canstruction® competition was held in Christchurch in February 2014 in support of the Christchurch City Mission. Eleven teams competed in the inaugural event - a design and build competition that uses canned food as building materials to create massive 3D structures. At the completion of the display period the structures were dismantled and over 35,000 cans of food were donated to the Christchurch City Mission’s foodbank.

The winning Christchurch sculptures in the six awards categories were entered via photo submission into the Canstruction® International Competition – competing against top sculptures from 124 cities from all over the world. The competition, which took place this month in Atlanta, has seen local Christchurch rebuild organisation, the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT), placed in the top ten in the world in the Juror’s Favourite category for their entry of ‘Darby the Dusty Digger’.

“To be recognised internationally for this rewarding project is further validation of the importance of giving back to the community,” said Ian Campbell, Executive General Manager of SCIRT. “SCIRT is committed to supporting Christchurch, not only through the rebuild of infrastructure, but through encouraging our people to go the extra mile wherever we can. Canstruction® fits that bill really well.”

This annual competition will once again be held in Christchurch later this year at the Canterbury A&P Show. This year’s challenge will see an increase in the scale of the competition where, once again, teams will compete for top honours and official trophies along with entry into the US Competition. The 2015 event aims to raise in excess of 40,000 cans to continue to support the Christchurch City Mission.

“Our warmest congratulations go to Ian and the SCIRT team for placing so well and strongly representing Christchurch to the rest of the global Canstruction® community” said Michael Gorman, Christchurch City Missioner. “Their continued support of this event and the Christchurch City Mission is immeasurable and greatly appreciated.”

Entries are now being accepted and are open to anyone. Interested teams can register to participate in this year’s competition – all information is available at www.canstructionchch.org.nz but register soon as spaces are limited.

Ends.

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