"CANstruction" Project Includes Work By Junior Sohan Kancherla

Junior Sohan Kancherla writes...
I was involved in a CANstruction project with the Hindu youth group, Balvihar of Saint Louis, on Sunday, Feb. 26 from 3-10 p.m.
The project served the dual purpose of raising awareness for food desserts, or areas that do not have access to fresh food, in the St. Louis Metro area, and of spreading the message of hope and religious and racial unity in this pressing time of political turmoil. My Hindu group worked with Christian, Muslim, and Jewish youth group members to fully plan and finish this project.
One of the main goals of the night was to show how youth from different economic, social, and religious backgrounds — ranging from the inner-city to Lake St. Louis — can work together smoothly and come together to accomplish a difficult task in just one night. We helped collect 2000 cans to build this project, which will all be donated to various food shelters throughout the area. The project took more than 3 months to plan, and overall took 7 hours to finish on Sunday.
The final product is an image of a tree with fruits containing the various religious symbols of Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity hanging from the branches. This final image is particularly significant because it inspires the ideas of growth and unity that is especially necessary in this troubling time with the refugee crises. This image and message also corresponds with the agricultural subject of the Grow! Exhibit in the Saint Louis Science Center and will be stored there in the front of the exhibit for the next month for all to visit.
Here is a video from the Science Center that explains the project and shows some of the construction: