Hunger is No Game

The beginning of the school year always drags along slowly. Students struggle to get into the groove of their new schedule, and the days seem like they last a lifetime. Luckily, St. Thomas More provides a service project to jazz up the mundane routine and make the school day a little more exciting and a little more competitive. Our annual school-wide service project is Canstruction. For this project, we collect canned goods and donate them to St. Joseph Diner. Canstruction embodies what STM service is all about.

Canstruction will always be, one of my favorite service projects provided by the school. I love this service project because we are able to combine our service to St. Joseph Diner with our competitive spirits. St. Joseph Diner depends on our contribution of cans to help stock their pantry, and every year we fight to raise the standards from the years previous. This year was special. Our initial goal
was to raise 13,000 cans, but our assistant campus minister, Dane Adams, posed yet another goal. Mr. Adams challenged us to raise 20,000 cans and vowed to shave his head if we met his challenge. Although we did not meet the goal of 20,000 cans, we did come close! We set a new school record of 17,000 cans. Next year, we will push ourselves even harder and strive to surpass 20,000 cans. We love nothing more than defeating a challenge set before us.

I value Canstruction because of the community it forms in the classroom. Everyone is fighting to have the best structure, and they are willing to bring in as many cans as it takes to win this competition. Barriers are broken between students, and they are able to bond more because of the end goal they are fighting for.

I also appreciate Canstruction because it revolves around the
fact that we are serving our local community. So often, we turn to mission trips in Puerto Rico and the Pro-Life March in Washington D.C. as a way to serve others and make a difference. We can sometimes forget about those suffering in our own backyards. Service in all aspects is wonderful, but there is something rewarding and special about knowing that you are making a difference right

in your own community. Canstruction reminds us that we do not have to travel across the sea to make a difference. We can drive down the street and sacrifice what we have to help others who are in need.

Canstruction is one of the most important services we, as an
STM community participates in. This opportunity helps to create a servant’s heart within us and teaches us from a young age how to embody what our patron, St. Thomas More, died for: to be seekers of truth, individuals of character, and God’s servant first.