The University’s Homecoming festivities have a service component every year, but organizers decided to make it bigger for the celebration’s 100th anniversary.The typical canned good collection was beefed up into Canapalooza, a new event in which students from organizations like Volunteer LSU, the Honors College, Student Government and various Greek organizations build “canned food structures” — replicas of campus buildings made of donated cans.”[Homecoming has] always had a service aspect, but this year it’s 10 times bigger because it’s the 100th Homecoming,” said Amelia Burns, chair of the Homecoming committee.Canapalooza spanned three days on the Parade Ground, accompanied by other Homecoming festivities like Splatterbeat, a concert and a pep rally.The cans used in the structures will be donated to the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, Burns said.”This year, like everything else, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank has experienced a lot of cutbacks to its finances,” Burns said. “Since LSU is all about helping the Baton Rouge community and Louisiana community, we want to give back by filling in those spaces.”The team from Kappa Alpha Theta built a model of the Pentagon. Each team member spent only $3 to $6, but they collected more than 800 cans for the project, said Aubrey DeVillez, international studies sophomore.The Honors College team collected cans at an Honors College Halloween party and used them to create a model of the North Gates and surrounding businesses. Team member Olivia LeBlanc, chemical engineering sophomore, said students should give back to the community in projects like Canapalooza because they owe it after all the community gives them.”We have so much at LSU, and we will do great things with our education, so it’s important to give back,” LeBlanc said.Mallory Trochesset, Homecoming Committee staff adviser, said Canapalooza’s mission was to put a more exciting spin on canned good donation.”Our mission was to find a creative, unique way to get students included in service,” Trochesset said.Melissa Wetzel, early childhood education sophomore, said making the service project more interesting added to the appeal of the Homecoming festivities.”People are more willing to donate to something cool,” she said.Trochesset said participation in the can donation was much larger this year than in the past. The committee was able to donate 2,871 cans after only one day of donation, she said. Final totals will be available Friday.Canapalooza will likely happen again next year, but possibly on a larger scale, Trochesset said.”We are looking at having a week-long community build,” she said. “An architecture or engineering student would design something, and we would have the community come out in shifts to build one massive structure.”—–Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]