When you wake up in the morning, what drives you? What makes you sit up, stretch, and embrace the day? At Crosskey Architects, why we wake up energized and eager to get to work is quite clear – to inspire others, transform communities, and have some fun doing it.
Over the past several weeks, our organization participated in the Chrysalis Center’s Donation Creation Food Drive and Competition. Over the course of that time, we collected canned food and money donations in order to contribute a several month’s supply of nonperishable goods. We were also able to get a little creative with a Donation Creation Can Sculpture before turning over the 987 cans to the food pantry.
The result was a feat of engineering and design. Standing at 7-10 ½ tall, 6-0 wide, and only 8 deep, our colored cylinders are stacked in a manner that might bring back both entertaining and frustrated memories of everyone’s favorite childhood game, Tetris. In just under three hours, nearly 1,000 cans were stacked, unstacked, and delivered to Hartford food pantry Freshplace, an initiative run by the Chrysalis Center.
Those of us at Crosskey Architects thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to participating in the years to come.
Chrysalis Center is a private, non-profit, socially innovative multiservice organization that serves individuals and families living in the State of Connecticut. At Chrysalis Center, we believe that each person, regardless of their illness, disability or life circumstance, has strengths, skills and experiences to build on. We work to offer quality services that respect the dignity of each person and their cultural background. We offer hope and guidance as individuals make choices to rebuild their lives. We work in partnership with people as they work toward: Getting help, Getting better, and Giving back. We are proud to say that many individuals we serve choose to give back to our community through volunteering, helping their peers or choosing occupations that focus on serving others.
Freshplace is a fresh food pantry serving the Upper Albany and Asylum Hill neighborhoods in Hartford. At typical food pantries, people receive a bag of food that may or may not meet their family’s needs. At Freshplace, patrons choose foods to meet the health and cultural needs of their families. Freshplace provides fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat and staple items to low-income families. Our Program Manager links patrons to community support services for job training and education, employment, health and mental health treatment, legal assistance and more. We offer nutritional information and cooking classes to our members.
By: Nicholas Fucci, MArch
