There are some questions we may go our whole lives wondering. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it really
make a sound? How come after you pop, you just can’t stop?
The Mustang team is happy to report that we have found the answer to one burning question we know has been on everyone’s minds: just how many cans does it take to make a CAN-tree?
What’s a CAN-tree you ask? A CAN-tree is a Christmas display of canned foods that have been donated to Ventura County FOOD Share’s annual CAN-tree Collection food drive. After the display has run its course, the donated cans are distributed to food pantries for the nearly 75,000 residents of Ventura County in need of food aid. Now in its fifth year, the event embodies the epitome of charitable giving in our community.
This past Friday, Dec. 2, we were very privileged to participate with a few of our favorite clients — Ventura County Credit Union (VCCU) and The Foundation of VCCU — for our second year, sponsoring a tree and helping assemble two trees to contribute to their overall count of 16 CAN-trees!
We admit we may not have been the most graceful, and it probably took a little bit longer for us to figure out how to get our tree topper stacked just right, but we had an absolute blast feeling the buzz of the community surrounding us as everyone worked together to honor the giving spirit of the season. With our busy lives, it can sometimes be a challenge to make the time we’d like to donate to giving back to the community. It’s days like these, where our team comes together for a truly remarkable community event, that really remind us of all we have to be grateful for and of what an inspiring community we live in.
Following the event, the team had lunch at Yard House — also located in the Collection at Riverpark, where the CAN-tree event display took place — and ate back all the calories we burned off stacking trees. No one thought twice about digging into the sweet potato fries and maple-bacon sauce!
Oh, that’s right! We never told you many cans it takes to make a CAN-tree! It’s estimated that anywhere from 600-800 cans are needed per tree to create the proper Christmas tree shape. How accurate was your guess?
Visit our Facebook page to check out more pictures from the day and to keep updated with Mustang!
