Dunk Hunger Campaign Begins
By Matt Rochinski
bobcats.com

November 5, 2007

The Bobcats continued their ongoing mission to make a difference in the Charlotte community on Monday as they kicked off the Bobcats Season of Giving with the unveiling a 25-foot high canned food structure that will be displayed in the lower lobby of Charlotte Bobcats Arena through December 21.

The can-struction is being used as a reminder of the Bobcats Dunk Hunger campaign, in which they will be collecting canned goods and non-perishable food items for donation to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina through 14 home games, starting on November 6 against Phoenix and running until December 21 against New York.

“We’re trying to incorporate Elevate as our mantra into everything that we do both on the court and off the court,” said Bobcats President and Chief Operating Officer Fred Whitfield. “We are very committed to the youth of Charlotte and very committed to being a part of the fabric of the community in Charlotte. The only way we can do that is to do great things in the community, and this is just one of the things that we want to be heavily involved in. We’re encouraging our players to come out and work hard on the floor and encouraging our fans to bring canned food to help support this effort.

“The more wins we get, the more fans we’ll get. The more fans we can bring in, the more food we can collect. It’s a never-ending circle of success.”

With more than 363,000 people living in poverty, including over 120,000 children who are at risk of hunger every day in the 19-county region that Second Harvest Food Bank serves in North and South Carolina, every can collected can truly make a difference in someone’s holiday meal.

“It’s very important that our sports teams are involved in the fight against hunger,” said Second Harvest Food Bank Executive Director Kay Carter. We appreciate the support of our players and the whole organization… We don’t believe that any child should be at risk of hunger and neither do any of the people that you see here today. We want to encourage people to come out to the Bobcats games and donate. We’re on a little roll here, and I’m hoping that maybe the food drive is the lucky charm this year.”

Through the contributions of the Bobcats, Harris Teeter and Kraft, Dunk Hunger has already began on a positive note with 30,000 canned food items being used in the structure that depicts a basketball tipoff at Charlotte Bobcats Arena. The cans used to create the initial can-struction were donated by the Bobcats and Harris Teeter, with Kraft already having pledged to match the number of cans used in the structure.

“Before all is said and done before we start the food drive at the games, we’re going to have about 60,000 pounds donated between the Bobcats, Harris Teeter and Kraft,” Carter said. “That’s an amazing start to the holiday season for us.”

A big thank you also has to go out to Odell Associates – the company that designed the structure and helped to assemble it with members of the Bobcats staff and Second Harvest Food Bank in about a 20-hour period starting early Sunday morning and running late into the night.

“When the Bobcats and Second Harvest approached us, they said they wanted a basketball-themed can-struction,” said Odell Associates architect Anthony Hersey. “So we came back to the table with a design that was a little ambitious and had to cut back to a design with 30,000 cans you see here today. We built this in a day, and that has to be some kind of record. It’s the biggest undertaking we’ve done, but it was all worth it knowing that all of this food will go to a great cause.”

The following are some fun facts about the Bobcats can-struction: