The Wit and Ramblings of David Giard - Give Camp
Demanding rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty

Episode 61

Chris Woodruff organized the 2009 Grand Rapids Give Camp which helped dozens of charities with software projects. On the final day of the Give Camp, Chris sat down with us to describe what went into the camp and what was accomplished.

By any measure, this past weekend's Grand Rapids Give Camp was a big success.

Over 70 volunteers worked at the Grand Rapids YMCA to build software projects for dozens of charities. Most of the volunteers were technical people - Developers, Database Administrators and Designers - but some came to assist with the logistics. In additions, local companies provided food, drink, facilities, giveaways.

Projects ranged from new web sites to automated contact management systems. Chris Woodruff, who coordinated the event was impressed with the quality of the work he saw. "We have such a great technical community, so (getting volunteers) was the easiest part," said Woodruff. When it was all over, the charity representatives were happy and several declared that the delivery exceeded their expectations.

Speaking commitments and family emergencies have kept me from fully engaging in past Give Camps, so this was the first one in which I contributed the entire weekend. My team created a web site for the Kent County 4-H Council, which they can easily update without hiring a technical resource. You can see the site at http://kentcounty4hcouncil.com/.

Woodruff is already thinking about next year's event, which will likely be held in July on the same weekend as a similar event in ann arbor.

More photos

They ran their final unit tests, checked in their code and wiped the sleep from their eyes before lumbering up the basement steps into the museum.

They had been designing, coding and testing for almost two straight days - some with only a few hours sleep; some with no sleep. Many had brought sleeping bags and had slept in the museum.  A mid-afternoon power outage had slowed them down and drove them from the museum basement, but it did not stop them.

Up the steps, at the other end of the museum, was the closing ceremony.  Here, everyone quickly re-energized.  They saw demos of the applications everyone had built.  They saw the gratitude of the charities, who could not have afforded to pay for this software.  They felt the accomplishment won of hard work and perseverance.

The Lansing Give Camp was held in the basement of the Impression 5 Science Center (except for Saturday afternoon, when a power outage forced everyone to find a new place to work for a few hours) and helped out thirteen capital-area charities.  Teams of developers, designers and DBAs worked through the weekend to write custom software for each charity. 

Organizers Jeff & Carla McWherter and Jay & Amy Harris worked the longest.  Weeks in advance, they began recruiting software professionals, securing a location, finding sponsors and vetting charity requests.  On Friday, they arrived hours before everyone else.  They bought food, set up work areas and made sure the network was in place to allow everyone to be productive when they arrived.

Many volunteers got something out of the Give Camp as well.  Amy Harris told of a college student she met, who said he learned more this weekend than in any of his classes.

In the end, Jeff McWherter called the event a success because the charities were happy.  But he was quick to point out it is not over.  Many developers maintain a relationship with these charities and continue to enhance the applications they wrote.

But on this Sunday evening - as the closing ceremonies ended and appreciation was drowsily accepted - the volunteers headed off for home seeking hot showers and clean sheets.

Until next year.

Episode 19

The Lansing Give Camp April 24-26 helped over a dozen charities. 

After months of preparation and a weekend with almost no sleep, Jeff & Carla McWherter and Jay & Amy Harris still had enough energy to talk about what made this event so successful.

8 mins, 43 secs