Volunteer programmers help region's nonprofits

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by JAY FRIESS Tony Papadakis of Mechanicsville, foreground, and Sixto Saez of Richmond, Va., discuss a scripting problem in a Web site they created for a nonprofit group during this weekend's GiveCamp event in St. Mary's City. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Volunteering isn't always about stuffing envelopes or sorting cans.

This past weekend, 100 computer experts donated their time to design Web sites and other products for local nonprofit organizations during the first Southern Maryland GiveCamp. Inspired by similar events held across the country since 2008, organizer Jim Pendarvis, a Web developer at NAVAIR, decided to organize one himself, he said.

With the free use of a building at St. Mary's College of Maryland, Pendarvis enlisted volunteers to design Web sites and other projects for 18 local charities. By Saturday afternoon a few were already finished, with most nearing completion, he said. Because, against his expectations, he managed to recruit 100 people to help, Pendarvis was due to have his crew-cut hair shaved off Sunday.

"I put my hair up as collateral — I would shave my head. Andrew [a sponsor] gets a Mohawk," Pendarvis said.

Pendarvis found himself engaging in some troubleshooting Saturday and computers were not involved. For one, Web designers had too little to do on Friday, when projects were just getting off the ground, and they had gotten bored and annoyed. He had also underestimated the aggravation of running something himself and is determined to spread the work if he organizes another one, he said.

"If I do it again I'm getting a team of people and I'm not talking to anybody again. Putting on something like this by yourself is suicidal. It's a lot of work," Pendarvis said.

Also, so many techies had descended on the building with their equipment that they blew a circuit breaker more than once, Pendarvis said. Maintenance staff was unavailable because of spring break, so Ariel Webster, a sophomore computer science major, came to the rescue. She had volunteered to help supervise the gathering for her college.

After a search, "I found the fuse box. That was fun," Webster said.

Math professor David Kung arranged for the camp to use his department's building, the William Donald Schaefer Hall, after Pendarvis cold-called him.

"St. Mary's is a public institution, so we see this event as fulfilling part of our mission to support the local community," Kung said. If the event is held again he wants to schedule it for a weekend when the college is open so students can participate.

Nathan Koterba of Columbia was one of a minority of participants who opted to spend nights in Schaefer Hall. Having expected more people to stay, he might have done things differently with the gift of hindsight, he said.

"It's fun, sort of. I think there's three to five people sleeping here. I didn't know everyone is staying in hotels and taking showers. We've had sleeping bags on the floor, roughing it for two days," Koterba said.

He was glad to hear that a gym building with showers had opened.

Pendarvis stayed as well, not because he couldn't go home but because he was unwilling to leave his things unguarded. So he plopped a plush purple mattress on the floor of the common area, directly underneath a table bearing his game console and monitors.

Three volunteers designing a collaboration portal for the Southern Maryland Child Care Resource Center had had their share of setbacks, with software problems taking two of their computers out of commission for hours, they said.

"I blew up my laptop, or had to reinstall everything. We've had some technical difficulties," said Tony Papadakis of Mechanicsville. He was still confident the group would finish the project in time, which would allow center volunteers to collaborate online and keep track of clients.

"Now, what did I do wrong?" he asked himself as he resumed his work.

Jean Radeackar, treasurer of Patuxent Animal Welfare Society, was looking forward to seeing a Web site a pair of volunteers was designing for a new project, a spay and neuter pet clinic coming this year to northern Prince Frederick. Without their help, the clinic would have to "get a volunteer and take whatever we got, which was not going to be anything compared to this" level of sophistication, she said.

Most volunteers were computer professionals but one, working on a Web site for Help Association in Owings was still in middle school. Andrew Herbig, 13, of Lexington Park said he learned Web design from the Internet and volunteered at the behest of his mother, who was also working on the project.

"She thought I should come here and I did," he said.

Matt Hartlove of Mechanicsville said finishing the thrift store Web site project in time would be "tight but I think we'll get it done." The Web developer with Zekiah Technologies was glad to use his knowledge to help a charity.

"I like volunteering. I thought it was nice I actually had a skill I could offer," Hartlove said.

Volunteers created a new accounting and database application for Community Foundation of Charles County, and while she hasn't had a chance yet to take it for a spin she is thrilled to have the help, said Executive Director Gretchen Heinze Hardman on Monday.

"I thought it was great. The whole weekend, it was so positive," she said. "They refer to themselves as geeks so they're all so excited and they were all talking about coding and the different types of technological applications, a lot of stuff which was totally foreign to me because it's just not my strongest point, but it was really so great and it was so great for so many nonprofits."

Hardman sent a mass e-mail to community foundations throughout the country telling them to be on the lookout for GiveCamps in their areas.

emitrano@somdnews.com