K-12 students across the Southeast Can Do Good
October 3, 2016 · Community
In 2009, GMC launched Can Do Good, a social design-build competition that provides students a hands-on learning experience with respect to the architecture, engineering and construction industry, while emphasizing the importance of giving back to the community. Elementary schools were invited to participate for the first time last year, making the competition open to kindergarten through 12th grade students across the Southeast.
Students first organize canned food drives at their schools, and then design and build creative structures using the items they’ve collected. All of the collected items are donated to a local food bank or charitable organization following the competition. More than 35,000 canned goods/food items have been donated to charitable organizations throughout the Southeast over the last three years through Can Do Good.
Teams must strategically plan and work together to collect the items needed to construct a representation of their original design. Once their masterpiece is complete, teams submit photos of their structure for the online voting portion of the regional competition. One photo of each team’s structure is posted on the Can Do Good Facebook page for the online voting round, which is open to the general public.
The three schools from each age division with the most votes (i.e., “likes” on their photo) advance to the finals. Each finalist’s entry is reviewed by a panel of GMC architects and engineers and judged based on overall theme, aesthetics, structure, difficulty and creativity, in addition to accounting for the number of cans used.
One team from each division will win the title of Best Can Do Good Structure in the Southeast and $1,000 for their school. GMC will also match the winning teams’ donations to their respective charitable organization.
Entries, including photos of the CDG structure and the completed entry form, must be submitted via email to candogood@gmcnetwork.com by Dec. 7, 2016. Online voting via the Can Do Good Facebook page begins Dec. 14, 2016 and ends Jan. 13, 2017.