Cape Girardeau Central High School students design giant Rhodes cup for school project

Cape Girardeau set a mark recognized by the Guinness World Records for the largest fountain drink at 15-feet tall, holding 605,556 regular-size cups. But it's another super-sized Rhodes 101 Convenience Stores cup getting attention lately -- this one created by four artistically talented high school students in Cape Girardeau.

Junior Wyatt Thomas, sophomore Amerah Hill, and freshmen Max Heuring and Kaleb Ramdial take an art class together at Cape Girardeau Central High School and were given the task to create a pop art sculpture, which is a reference to popular culture and the mass media -- particularly in an ironic way. The concept for this project was to create the items to be larger than life.

Hill said they were given choices on what to create, and the group chose the Rhodes fountain drink. In just five class periods, the students created a fountain drink cup that stood taller than Hill at 5 feet, 3 inches. The larger-than-life cup was created out of cardboard, plastic, paper and hot glue, according to the group.

The students had to build the structure inside the oversized cup and figure out how to make it stand up so it would not fall over.

"I enjoyed the project," Hill said. "It made us talk to each other, which we never really do, and agree on how to create it overall."

Rhodes fountain drink project that was created by four Cape Central art students. The cup stands at 5 feet and 3 inches without measuring the straw.

Rhodes fountain drink project that was created by four Cape Central art students. The cup stands at 5 feet and 3 inches without measuring the straw.

Ramdial and Heuring both said they enjoyed tracing and painting the large convenience store logo on the cup.

Heuring said the hardest part of the project was getting paper to stick correctly to the cardboard in the way they wanted. To do this, they had to use a hot glue gun.

Hill said her mother told her to send a photo of the project to the Rhodes Facebook page to show them what they accomplished.

The group got a shoutout on Facebook by the Rhodes 101 Convenience Stores page after Hill submitted it to them, saying they really "popped off" with this Rhodes art sculpture. The Rhodes Facebook page said they were honored to be their "muse" and hoped the students would keep up their "thirst" for inspiration.

The group is now individually working on realistic life paintings in the art classroom. The members chose tigers -- the high school's mascot -- for this project.