Why Volunteer for GiveCamp?

by Evelyn Livant, BRIDGE Guest Blogger

When I learned about GiveCamp 2010, I went to be part of a technical team to write solutions for non-profits and charities.   I was excited about working at a weekend-long “hackathon” in Cambridge at Microsoft’s New England Research and Development Center (aka NERD), and I thought it would be a great opportunity to help my career.  What I got out of it was more than programming fun and career development – I wound up a junior member of “Team Awesome” that wrote the new Web site for RESPOND, New England’s first domestic violence agency and the second oldest in the nation (read Evelyn’s blog post for RESPOND here).

During the course of the weekend, I had the opportunity to work with senior developers who were contributing to this cause for the sheer joy of giving back.  However, I must admit, it wasn’t all work . . .

We got to camp out at Microsoft!

Some folks pitched tents in the office space.  Others simply unrolled sleeping bags.  Some didn’t bother to sleep at all and just coded 24/7 through 48 hours of insanity.

GiveCamp keeps its irreverent sense of humor.  It is, after all, a camp!  We made s’mores and enjoyed “arts and crafts” time.

The fun of the weekend?  Jumping onto a team, learning new technologies on the spot, and finishing a project in just 48 hours.

The enduring part of the weekend – lives were changed, and lifelong friendships were made.  The unexpected reward:  RESPOND gave our team and GiveCamp the 2010 Timothy White “Take A Stand” Award for the individual or team that made the greatest contribution to ending domestic violence.

I just had to go back to GiveCamp in 2011 to volunteer again, reuniting with the friends I had made the year before and forging new friendships as well.   The main focus of the weekend was working on the projects at hand, and the folks at GiveCamp had improved our ability to do so.  This year, we had an on-site ad-hoc library with a reference “librarian” to assist the teams with extra resources.   The cross-team work both years was great – teams assisted each other with the technical help they needed to get their projects done.  There were also impromptu training sessions to give the teams access to any extra help they might need.

The biggest lesson I learned through all of my experiences at GiveCamp is flexibility – my first year, I worked with the CMS Sitefinity for the first time and had to learn it on-site.  My second year seemed to be what I called “Wordpress Weekend,” since most of the recipients of the volunteer work used WordPress from WordPress.org as a CMS.   Once again, I had to learn a CMS on the spot and meet a very tight deadline.   I was grateful for all of the coffee and for the opportunity to camp out on-site.   This year, I also learned the structure of a Web site built on a PHP platform, and I did the necessary research to get my part of the project coded in time to coordinate with the rest of the team.

New England GiveCamp relies on all of its volunteers’, both their technical and logistical (non-technical), support and on its sponsors, who generously donate food, coffee, and other provisions to keep us all going.

Of course, I’ll be back in 2012, and I’m keeping an eye out for when it’s announced on Twitter (@NEGiveCamp) that sign-up is officially open!

Evelyn Livant is an Entry-Level Developer who stays active in the .NET community and works for her own small business that she started in 2010.

Her primary interest is in Web solutions and databases. Her experience thus far has been with a variety of start-up companies, from the finanical industry to book publishing.  Follow her at @EvyLion, email her at evelynlivant@gmail.com, or visit her website at LivantEnterprises.com.

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