TIGER TV ONLINE REPORTER
CANapalooza has kicked the usual homecoming canned-food drive up a notch.
The three-day homecoming event has students donate canned food, build structures with the cans and enjoy a different activity every night.
Anyone in the LSU or Baton Rouge community can donate cans by depositing them in the white barrels outside of high-traffic areas of campus anytime this week, but many of the cans will come from the 14 student organizations who signed up to build can structures on the Parade Grounds.
The homecoming student committee recommended each group collect 400 to 500 cans to complete their structures.
“In the past we had OK turnouts for food drives, but the Greater Baton Rouge Food bank is really in need this year because of cutbacks,” homecoming student committee service chair Erika Boyd said. “This is a good way to get more cans, especially with the events going on with it.”
Each day of CANapalooza a different sponsored activity will be held to promote homecoming and the food drive. RHA, or Resident Hall Association, is sponsoring Tuesday’s event, Splatterbeat. The first 500 students who come will each receive a shirt to splatter with paint. Wednesday’s event will feature seven inflatables sponsored by the Greek Board of Directors and the band Streamline sponsored by Student Activities Board.
“Streamline plays different types of music from old to new,” Boyd said. “We wanted that because it ties in with the theme of 100 years of homecoming.”
Thursday will feature a pep rally to get LSU in the spirit of homecoming with various student organizations and performers present. Boyd said they wanted to do something different not only for the 100 year anniversary and spirit, but because many students don’t even realize when homecoming is going on.
“We’ve never done anything like this; usually we have a concert but because of funds we didn’t have enough money to get someone people would come out and see,” Boyd said. “We had to ask ourselves, ‘What can we do to get people pumped up?’”
So far, this effort to get students in pumped up for homecoming is paying off.
“I wasn’t excited before, but now I want to go to the parade grounds and see what people are going to build with the cans,” biological sciences junior Allyson Schreiber said.
CANapalooza isn’t going to be a one-time thing. Boyd said the Homecoming Committee is striving to make it an annual homecoming event.
“Many colleges have can structure buildings, and hopefully we can work up to that,” Boyd said. “We’ll do it many more times.”
