A 'despicable' act of vandalism (5 photos)

A 10-foot-tall statue of a Minion from the film “Despicable Me” built entirely from non-perishable food at the New Sudbury Centre had to be dismantled March 11 thanks to vandalism.

“Yesterday at some point some individual hit it in the face and created some damage,” said Cambrian College civil engineering professor Jeff Walker, who co-ordinated the statue's construction.

“It's very heavy, and if it falls down, it could hurt somebody. There was a safety concern, so they removed it.”

Although the statue would have been removed March 14 anyway, it was disappointing it had to be taken down so soon, Walker said.

The statue was built by second-year Cambrian civil engineering students March 8 along with three others as part of the CANstruction competition, a fundraiser for the Sudbury Food Bank.

Although the Minion has been taken down, people still have a chance to see the other three statues until tomorrow.

First-year Cambrian civil engineering students built a Creeper from the popular video game Minecraft, and Cambrian staffers built a lightbulb with the words “let your light shine.”

Laurentian University School of Architecture students built a parallax with the architecture school symbol. Depending on where you're standing, the symbol becomes visible or disappears.

All of these structures, which took about four hours each to build, were constructed using 6,000 non-perishable food items which will be donated to the Sudbury Food Bank once they're dismantled.

People were also invited to vote for their favourite statue, with the architecture school's parallax winning with 52 per cent of the vote.

“It's good for the community and the people who come to the mall get to see all these different sculptures,” Walker said. “We get to use our imagination, so it's a fun thing.”

Nichole Appleton, a first-year civil engineering student at Cambrian, helped to build the Creeper with the help of her 14-year-old daughter.
“It's an awesome idea,” she said. “It gives us a chance to have some fun and get away from our studies. It also gives all this food to the food bank to people that need it.”

CANstruction was sponsored by a number of local businesses, including NorthernLife.ca.