The Lansing GiveCamp is a great way to help charities in need and beef up or learn some new skills for the volunteers. The basic idea is charities submit proposals and developers with various skills volunteer. The volunteers are matched up with the charities for three solid days of development on the charity’s behalf. In essence many of the more committed volunteers basically live at the venue and some work around the clock. As a result it is helpful if the various sponsors help provide a venue, food, beverage and snacks. Developer Express was just one such sponsor. Developer Express provided door prizes and one of the several meals for all attendees. Developer Express also graciously permitted developers and the charities to use Developer Express tools and components free of charge.
I volunteered and passed out swag, including hats, and t-shirts. Our group was best served by a web portal, so it made sense given the time allowed to use DotNetNuke. The downside is our team didn’t get to use a lot of the cool Developer Express technology that was available. I did demonstrate CodeRush and Refactor for a couple of team members, and as always I am surprised when I meet people that haven’t used these tools before. (Of course, one guy was a state employee and sometimes “budget” is used as a reason for not leveraging tools. Makes me think of Ben Franklin’s “penny wise-pound foolish” sentiment.)
For more about Lansing GiveCamp check out the lansinggivecamp.org web site.