Lansing Give Camp 2009: Coding for Charity!

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I am truly proud of the amazing people in our software development community.  The Lansing Give Camp was an inspirational weekend of coding for charity. 

The Lansing Give Camp was held April 24-26, 2009 at the Impression 5 Science Center (which was an extremely cool venue...the science exhibits were a fun backdrop).  There were 70 attendees.  This was another successful Give Camp event, in which software developers and designers donated their time and talent to create websites or small applications for 13 non-profit organizations. 

Lansing Give Camp 2009 from Ryan Doom on Vimeo.

 

Some notable comments about this particular Give Camp:

  • There was a very bad storm on Saturday, which caused a power outage for 3.5 hours!  This affected laptop power and wireless access.  Many groups moved to coffee shops and other locations, and then had to make their way back.  Huge kudos to these determined volunteers! 
  • It was held at the Impression 5 Science Center in downtown Lansing, at long tables in their big basement.  The open space created a great sense of community. 
  • This event was scheduled the same day as another tech conference, Kalamazoo X.  The organizers worked together to offer discounts: anyone attending the Lansing Give Camp could attend Kalamazoo X for free!   

The Lansing Give Camp was organized by Jeff & Carla McWherter and Jay & Amy Harris.  Jeff and Jay are both leaders in the local software developer community, and their wives are fabulous ladies that often join us at developer conferences.  Great work organizing this tremendous effort!   

David Giard interviewed the Lansing Give Camp organizers here:

I'm proud that Microsoft sponsored the event, providing a gift bag of software and books for each charity, software, keyboards, and mice giveaways for the developers, and some funding for food. 

 

Resources

Event website: https://www.lansinggivecamp.org/

Videos

Pictures

Blog posts:

Press releases:

Great Lakes IT Report (Detroit, Mich.): Lansing Give Camp develops free software for nonprofits 

WLNS-TV (CBS) (Lansing, Mich.): Microsoft sponsored Lansing Give Camp gives to local nonprofits

Lansing AM Radio: Jay Harris 

Lansing Capital Gains: Give Camp Brings $50,000 in Tech Talent to Local Charities