People passing through the upper UC last week may have noticed the spectacular construct of cans in Buck Brock Commons. This aluminum monument is the culmination of a charitable partnership between Samford and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
According to a press release from UAB’s website, “The two universities are conducting a campus-wide food drive that will lead to the construction of a can-based structure. All donations collected during the collaboration will benefit the universities’ food pantries and the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama.”
The Community Food Bank was chosen because of its involvement in the Birmingham area.
“The food bank is fighting food insecurity, which is a big problem in Birmingham,” said Debby Haralson, Samford’s director of community engagement.
“In the city of Birmingham, about 70% of people live in food deserts. The food bank is available to bring food to those food deserts.”
The food drives were a resounding success.
“We think we’ve got a little more than 3000 cans,” Haralson said. “That exceeded my expectations and I was really happy.”
This result was in part due to the event’s marketing campaign. Adrienne Self, a sophomore Journalism and Mass Communications major, headed publicity efforts.
“A lot of it is through social media, really trying to reach our target audience being college students,” Self said. We also put fliers everywhere. You can’t miss them.”
After roughly 3,000 cans had been collected, construction began on the final build.
Asher Bitner, a sophomore architecture major who also works in Samford’s Office of Community Engagement, was responsible for organizing the project.
“When [the Office of Community Engagement] interviewed me, they had in mind that they were going to do this project,” Bitner said. “They kind of let me take the reins on it, but other students came around during the week to help out with it as well.”
This involvement from the student body, especially student-led service organizations like Samford Loves Birmingham, was instrumental in the project’s success.
“We had parents and students come and register to help,” Haralson said. “We had several students from the Architecture and Design Collective really work together to figure out what the structure could be, and Samford Loves Birmingham really helped engage students.”
The design team decided to model the build after one of Birmingham’s most iconic landmarks.
“It was supposed to be related to Birmingham in general, so we modeled it off of the Rotary Trail Gate,” Bitner said. “We added a bit of Samford colors, and then ‘S U’ underneath it.”
This iconic Birmingham landmark symbolizes the collaborative spirit of the event.
“In the beginning, we were thinking of it as a big competition,” Haralson said. “But the more we thought about it, we’re like, ‘what if we just celebrate Birmingham?’ Especially in this hyper competitive world, we have just liked coming together to serve people.
Looking to the future, Haralson expressed a desire to see further cooperation between Samford and UAB.
“I would love to connect our students with UAB students,” Haralson said. “Who knows what we could do?”
Staff Reporter
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