Christmas can [still] change the world. This year, Give Presence.
The story of Christ’s birth is a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love.
So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists.
And when it’s all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling of missed purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas?
This weekend I had the honor and privileged to attend the Grand Rapids GiveCamp in lovely Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Roughly 100 developers, designers and other technical professionals graciously gave their time and energy to help 25 worthy charities. Work was done on projects ranging from updating outdated websites to building databases to track donors.
I must make a confession here… To be honest I was very hesitant to go. I think like many developers I have a great fear of coding in public. In the safe confines of the cube jungles you are comfortable and safe. In a public setting being sat down at a table with a room full of coders was down terrifying to me. I was terrified that I would be found out as a phony, an incompetent programmer and *gasp* a newb in comparison to everyone else.
But I felt a calling on myself to take the chance and do some good. Much of what I can directly account for to my recent reading of Joyce Meyer’s book “A Love Revolution”. This book has really inspired me to open up and give to those in need.
Anyhoo… enough of my emotional outpouring lets get back to to #GRGiveCamp
I was assigned to do updates to some surveys and data collection tools that the Volunteer Center of Greater Kalamazoo had. I may be biased but I think we had the most awesome kick-ass team with my fellow teammates @mattsonlyattack and @kalpers.
We worked with the ASP.Net MVC Framework and Drupal to get our project done. It was very fun as I have wanted to learn MVC but have yet had the chance to sit down and dig in. I got to be tossed into the deep end and work my way through it. In 2 days of programming I managed to grok a lot and I feel very comfortable that I could safely do MVC work now.
It was an amazing time and one I will not soon forget. Thank you Chris Woodruff (@cwoodruff) and all the crew that organized this. I feel so energized and happy knowing I did some good and made a difference in this world!
Today is Veterans Day, so please make sure to take a moment to stop and thank a veteran, and all currently active service men and women, you know for their service to our great country! Without their loyal and dedicated service none of us might even be here today.
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Friday, November 27, 2009 
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