Charitable Web Design
Category: Local...
Posted Wednesday, October 26, 2005 at 01:32 PM [GMT-6]

My wife's employer is having its big annual fundraising event for United Way of Midland today and I'm waiting on the figurative edge of my seat to see how much time and effort it will cost me.

One of the events is a silent auction of donated goods and services, and I've contributed a website package that includes a small custom-designed site plus domain name registration and hosting fees for a year. I'll be interested to see what value, if any, is placed on this package.

I've actually done this twice before, with mixed success, although it was back in the days when I built websites as a hobby. The first package was purchased by someone who wanted to put family photos on a website to share with out-of-town family (this was well before there was such things as Ofoto or Flickr). Shortly thereafter, they transferred to another city and never got around to giving me anything to work with, so that went nowhere.

The second time was more successful, as the package was purchased on behalf of a local girls' club volleyball team (a club volleyball team for girls, that is...not a Girl's Club volleyb...well, never mind). Several of the players were hoping for athletic scholarships to college and the team organizers thought a website might make it easier for coaches around the country to find out about them. That project turned into sort of a medium-term stint, as I maintained it for them for a couple of years, all for free. There's nothing like having a bunch of cute and extremely fit teenaged girls ooh-ing and ah-ing over your work to keep you motivated. The team gave me a volleyball signed by each of the players, which was a great memento. And, several of them did end up playing volleyball for various Division I and II colleges, so that was cool.

As I said, I can't wait to see who picks up this current package, and for what purpose. Sure, it will be added work for me, but it's for a good cause and I always end up meeting and working with good people doing interesting things.