During the weekend of April 1, 68 volunteers got together hoping to improve the outreach of local charities through technology.
The draw for these volunteers was the second annual Southern Maryland GiveCamp at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
GiveCamp brings technology to local charities by connecting volunteers and charities to build websites and computer applications for the nonprofits.
GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where technology professionals including designers, developers, database administrators, marketers and Web strategists donate their time to provide technical solutions for community nonprofit organizations.
Sponsors provide food, beverages and other goodies to keep the volunteers comfortable, some of whom stay the entire weekend at the event.
This year’s event sponsors included ASP Experts, Booz Allen Hamilton, ComponentOne, DevExpress, DiscountASP.NET, Elite Beatz, Infragistics, Microsoft, TDH International, Telerik and Zekiah Technologies.
The volunteers come from varied backgrounds. Employees from 28 companies attended as well as students and self-employed professionals.
During the weekend, competition among companies is set aside, with teams organized by skill sets to ensure they can succeed and get the charities the help they need.
Twelve local charities were helped this year, the Maryland Resource Parent PTSA, Discover U Children’s Museum, St. Mary’s County Child Advocacy Center, Bay K9 SAR, Optimist Club of Tall Timbers, 2nd District, Mattawoman Watershed Society, town of Indian Head’s Rail Trail Outreach Committee, Christmas in April * St. Mary’s County, Southern Maryland Center for Independent Living, Pets On Wheels, Tri-County Youth Services Bureau and the Charles County Technology Council.
Started in 2010, Southern Maryland GiveCamp has helped 31 charities and provided a venue for volunteers to donate more than $600,000 worth of free development work to local organizations.