For those of you who were not able to attend, and who may not have heard about this event prior to it's taking place, it was a phenomenal experience. The event managed to help out 5 charities, with needs ranging from a re-vamp to an existing site, to a secure intranet for exchanging information, to a site built from the ground up.
The teams gave it their all, and they came up with some excellent implementations. It is always good to see a bunch of geeks, who are used to working in their familiar environments, thrust into unfamiliar territory... with brand new requirements... and a short deadline.
In addition, it was wonderful to meet the representatives of the 5 charities, and really get to know what it is they do within their organizations. These amazing people do amazing things every day, and it was the least we could do to repay them for all of their hard work. Unfortunately, this hard work often includes administrative work, like maintaining an ancient web site, all in an effort to keep the community apprised of their valuable work.

We at C4C hope that this event was able to ease the administrative burden that these 5 charities take on as part of their good works. If only a few hours a week are saved, we still feel that this was a huge success.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without a lot of people helping out.

Coordinators:

First, thanks to the people who helped pull this event off: Jeff Julian, John Alexander, and Doug Butscher. These three guys were running around, trying to make sure all of the loose ends were tied up throughout the weekend. They were even spotted stepping into the development arena to help out when needed.

Volunteers:

Jacque Willis at Centriq. Wow. Without Jacque, this event would have fallen apart at the seams. From allowing us into the building, to providing pastries and fruit platters in the morning, to struggling with the Centriq alarm system at 11:00 PM every night, to her mad drumming Rock Band skills, to helping us serve the food, help clean up after the meals, and keeping the fridge stocked with sodas... Jacque was instrumental in pulling this off. Thank you Jacque! And many thanks to Centriq Training for allowing us their facility this weekend! We hope that we left their offices cleaner than we found them.  

Clint Edmonson, Microsoft Architect Evangelist, showed up and brought with him 20 copies of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, along with copies of Office 2007 and Sharepoint Designer. Clint provided a tremendous amount of support for this event, and he even volunteered to step up as photographer for the weekend, compiling a beautiful video slide show of the entire weekend.

Jerod Crump, Chief Operating Officer with AJI/Software volunteered his weekend to come and support this event. Jerod was a jack-of-all trades, supporting the teams in any way needed, and keeping us entertained in the wee hours. Jerod's help is very much appreciated.

Developers:

There was a total of 25 developers who helped out at the event, each of whom contributed substantially to the implementations. Each developer applied their unique style and skill sets to create a well-blended product for each charity. In the order in which they are listed on the Team Assignments page, the developers are: Lee Brandt, Becky Isserman, Blake Theiss, Joe Loux, Timothy Wright, Steven Hildreth, Jill Kirkpatrick, Joseph Cook, Jim Heavey, Kevin Shaffer, Patrick Herrington, David Rogers, Buck Sommerkamp, Alex Sommerkamp, Cody Inman, Rashid Hoda, Tim Hibbard, Hong Chen, James Clemons, Yuriy Lyeshchenko, Shawn Mannen, Jason Atcheson, Jacob Dubin, Joe Seaman, and Mary Stayton

Charities:

C4C was able to help 5 charities at the event. Each charity brought it's own unique set of requirements. Every charity brought their passion for their organization. It was a humbling experience to be in the presence of people who give back to their community each and every day. It goes without saying that this event could not have taken place without the participation of these non-profit organizations.
Each charity is listed below, along with links to the event write-ups, existing and new web sites.

• Boy Scouts Troop 813
  • Event Write-up
• Berean Bible Church
  • Event write-up
• Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA)
  • Event write-up
  • Existing (and soon to-be-new) web site
• Missouri Pit Bull Rescue (MPR)
  • Event write-up
  • Existing (and soon to-be-new) web site
• Task Force Omega of Missouri, Inc.
  • Event write-up
  • Existing web site
  • New web site

 Sponsors:

What's an event without food, soda, and swag? Nothing! We were very fortunate to be able to partner with several Kansas City businesses, who saw the need to support an event like this, and graciously stepped forward to offer whatever support they could. There were times during the event that our sponsors came in to bring food and soda... even homemade cookies. Because the developers and charities were so enveloped in their work, the presence of the sponsors was not always known. Their help is tremendously appreciated, and we are proud and appreciative to list them below:

 

Jeff Julian and John Alexander of AJI/Software have graciously hosted the C4C site, as well as buying delicious d'Bronx pizza for lunch on Sunday afternoon.

Centriq Training opened their doors for us for the entire weekend of the event. In addition, they provided fresh fruit and pastries on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Many thanks to Jacque Willis and all the folks at Centriq for hosting our event!


Clint Edmonson, Microsoft Architect Evangelist provided 20 copies of Visual Studio, several copies MS Office and SharePoint Designer for the charities to take home with them after the event. Also, we have managed to score some fleece vests (limited quantity), some Mix '07 tees, and some VS 2008 tees.


TEKsystems paid for the custom screen printed geeky C4C shirts on all of our backs for the weekend! Katy Delmez even brought some homemade cookies to the event!



TriCom bought our soda and water. A lot of it. As if that weren't enough, they brought in an amazing Mr. Goodcents lunch buffet on Saturday afternoon.


Modis IT got the weekend started by bringing in a delicious lasagna dinner with all the sides from Jasper's. We filled the fridge with leftovers, and many developers (that means you, Buck) were caught sneaking back to the fridge for leftovers.


Matt Denney with Tradebot Systems provided everyone in attendance with high-quality bags for carrying home all of their swag. We had a few extras, and they were quickly snatched up.


David Silverlight with Community Credit hooked up the winning team (Boy Scouts Troop) with pocket Guitar Hero games, and a Simpson's Checkers Game. These items were a hit. Thanks again to Community Credit!

Midwest Consulting Group stepped up at the last minute and offered to pick up a chinese food spread for Saturday night. Jacque Willis chipped in as well to help offset the cost of dinner. Many thanks to Lee Brandt, Midwest Consulting, and Jacque for helping out with the event!!
 

 

Thank you!