Last year at this time, I was hunkered down in the Junior Achievement building in Pittston, PA with about 25 other volunteers for 24-hours of pro-bono creative work during an around-the-clock event called Create-A-Thon.
Led locally by Catherine Shafer, owner of CDS Creative, Create-A-Thon gives non-profits the opportunity to have websites built, print materials designed and advertising campaigns created at no charge whatsoever. All the work is done by individuals who donate their time and talent to help the worthy organizations who are selected to be beneficiaries.
These folks work non-stop all day and all night cranking out an amazing amount of work stopping only for brief status meetings, bathroom breaks, or when someone brings by some food (which is always a welcome reward, trust me).
Create-A-Thon 2010 got underway this morning at 9am and concludes tomorrow around 10am when the team will present the fruits of their labor to the following organizations:
- Abington Community Library in Clarks Summit
- Anthracite Scenic Trails Association in Dallas
- Carbondale Technology Transfer Center
- Electric Theatre Company of Scranton
- Marley’s Mission in Beach Lake
- MetroAction in Scranton
- NEPA Veterans Multicare Alliance, serving all of NEPA
- Planned Parenthood of Northeast and Mid-Penn, serving Northeastern and Central PA
- RiverCommon.org in Wilkes-Barre
- SCOLA Volunteers for Literacy in Scranton, and
- Wyoming Valley Children’s Association in Forty Fort
Last year I was blogging, tweeting and putting videos together of the event, but this year, due to a scheduling conflict, I wasn’t able to participate. But with the streaming video I’ve been watching throughout the day, I feel as though I’m there….. only this time I won’t be sneaking a nap in the parking lot at 3:30am.