Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh, from Cleveland GiveCamp 2017!

Blog Date
Author(s)
Julie Smith
Stuart O. Smith, Jr.

Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh,

Everyone at camp was told that they had to write a blog post about camp, so I decided to write you this letter.

This was my eighth year at Cleveland GiveCamp (@CleGiveCamp), and it started off with a lot of hard work! Kevin (@kefrith) and I had to set up enough chairs for the 200 GiveCampers that were coming for the weekend of July 21-23, 2017. The camp was on a boat and in an airport, which was very cool, except when the air conditioner broke in the airport. Then it was hot! It rained on the campers Saturday night, but everyone stayed dry in their tents.

Broken Airport Air Conditioner!
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Kevin and I were in the hot airport at the social media table for most of the weekend, which was OK with us, since we heard that one person got seasick on the boat. A different camper on the boat wrote on Slack, “I felt like the room was spinning....I wondered just how much caffeine I’d had.... [Then] I realized, ‘I’m on a boat.’”

LeanDog Software/Arras Keathley Agency Boat
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Camp ended up being really fun! Since Kevin and I were on the Social Media Team, we got to play with Twitter, Facebook, and watch fellow campers share photos of their cats and dogs on the #random Cleveland GiveCamp Slack channel! At home, we would get in trouble for playing on the computer this much, but at Cleveland GiveCamp, we were encouraged to stay up late sharing stuff.

Social Media -- #CleGC Hashtag!
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A member of the Social Media Team set up a new Cleveland GiveCamp Instagram account, where they shared lots of great photos from the weekend! Check out our Facebook videos and HUGE Facebook photo galleries for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!

Cleveland GiveCamp Social Media Team
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Social Media Team (links to Facebook & Twitter):
Sarah Reinbolt (@sreinbolt), Sandro Galindo (@azrael),
Stuart O Smith Jr (@sos_jr), Susie Sharp (@SusieSharp ),
Rebecca Ferlotti (@RebeccaFerlotti), Kevin Frederick Smith (@kefrith),
Laura Weichel (@LWeichel15), Lisala Peery (@ItsLisalaP )
 
See all Cleveland GiveCamp 2017 Team Portraits by Albert Bell (@PhotoAlBell)

The camp gave a special green shirt to me and the others who were on the Cleveland GiveCamp Steering Committee or were on Team Y -- the tech floaters team.

"Green Shirts" - Cleveland GiveCamp Steering Committee and Team Y,  the Tech Floaters Team
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See all Cleveland GiveCamp 2017 Team Portraits by Albert Bell (@PhotoAlBell)

There were 20 other teams who played well together to build 19 really cool websites, and one neato database project for local nonprofit organizations. All our team photos are shared on the Cleveland GiveCamp 2017 Team Portraits album on Facebook.

Cleveland GiveCamp 2017 Teams
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See all Cleveland GiveCamp 2017 Team Portraits by Albert Bell (@PhotoAlBell)

Our favorite team was Team Z! They made us some really great camp food, and even coffee and snacks! The camp food had themes like cookout night, noodle bowl lunch, Hawaiian luau dinner, and leftover surprise along with pizza. The camp counselors surprised us Saturday night with our very own ice cream truck from East Coast Custard (@ECCustard)!

Cleveland GiveCamp Team Z -- Food, Glorious Food!
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Mmmm -- Frozen Custard!!!
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Ice Cream Truck from East Coast Custard!
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I know I started this letter complaining about the airport and boat, but camp ended up being super fun! We got to go out where REAL airplanes were parked and have our picture taken with all our camper friends!

Cleveland GiveCamp Volunteers on Airport Tarmac
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Next door to the boat was a really cool submarine called the USS Cod (@SubmarineCod). We heard that some campers on the boat almost fell out of their chairs when the submarine crew fired a cannon!

USS Cod Submarine
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One of the nonprofits getting a new website this year was the International Women's Air & Space Museum (@WomenintheAir) which is a FREE museum right inside Burke Lakefront Airport (@BurkeLakefront), where we did a lot of our camp activities! The airport was full of space stuff from NASA, airplane models (we were told we were not allowed to climb on them), and interesting pictures and facts about women pilots and astronauts.

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Cool Space Stuff from NASA
Amelia Earhart Wearing Cleveland GiveCamp 2017 Shirt -- International Women's Air & Space MuseumInternational Women's Air & Space Museum 

Thanks, LeanDog Software (@LeanDog) and Arras Keathley Agency (@AKACleveland), for letting us play on your boat and watch the pretty sunsets each night. All the campers could not believe that this cool place is where you work.

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Sunset and Flag from LeanDog Software/Arras Keathley Agency Boat
  Sunset, Cleveland GiveCamp Style!

On Saturday night, we even got to see fireworks from on top of the boat! We thought they were for us campers, but found out that it was part of a special 100th birthday party for the Cleveland Metroparks (@CleveMetroparks)! That would be a lot of candles for a birthday cake!

 Fireworks and Rock Hall! Happy 100th Birthday, Cleveland Metroparks!
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Lots of the campers got to sleep in tents, including Kevin. This is Kevin’s fifth time at Cleveland GiveCamp. He always gets to make a REALLY cool video about camp. He also edited a video for The Valentine Project's (@ValentineProj) Facebook page.

Cleveland GiveCamp 2017 Tent City
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I even get to go to a Cleveland Indians (@Indians) baseball game for FREE, since I volunteered at Cleveland GiveCamp!! Thank you to BVU: The Center for Nonprofit Excellence (@BVUVolunteers) for giving me tickets through the Indians Volunteer Challenge program! If you were at Cleveland GiveCamp with me, here is how to get your tickets!

Free Cleveland Indians Tickets from BVU!
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I sent out a lot of tweets and retweets about Cleveland GiveCamp. Please share the ones you like by retweeting them. Also see all my photos and other camp stuff below.

Your loving son,
Stuart

P.S. Can I go back to GiveCamp next year?

 

The rest of this blog post contains information about Cleveland GiveCamp 2017.

Victory for all 20 Cleveland GiveCamp Nonprofit Partners for 2017!

We are excited that all 20 projects were successfully completed!

  1. Akron Blind Center and Workshop, Inc (@AkronBlindC)
  2. Consortium of African American Organizations (@CAAOCleveland)
  3. Cosmic Bobbins Foundation (@CosmicBobbins)
  4. Domestic Violence and Child Advocacy Center (@DVCAC)
  5. Economic & Community Development Institute (@ECDIoh)
  6. Empowering Epilepsy (@EMPEpilepsy)
  7. Family Connections
  8. Info Line, Inc. (@InfoLineInc)
  9. International Women’s Air and Space Museum (@WomenInTheAir)
  10. Lake/Geauga Educational Assistance Foundation (@LEAF_Ohio)
  11. Lorain County Safe Harbor DBA Genesis House (@GenesisHouse1)
  12. Love in Neglected Communities (@LINCworldwide)
  13. Progressive Arts Alliance, Inc.
  14. Services for Independent Living
  15. StarkFresh (@Fresh_Stark)
  16. Transracial Journeys
  17. University Settlement (@USettlement)
  18. Ursuline Piazza (@UrsulinePiazza)
  19. The Valentine Project Inc. (@ValentineProj)
  20. Womankind, Inc.

 

If you know of a nonprofit interested in becoming a Cleveland GiveCamp Nonprofit Partner in 2018, click here and fill out the form!

 

Craze eCool Award 2017

In addition to the free tech solutions (19 websites and one database project) for the 2017 nonprofits partners, these three nonprofits were awarded a cash prize through the Craze eCool Award 2017:

Winners of the Craze eCool Award 2017
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Photo by Katrina Blatt (@KATinCLE)

This year was the second year for the Craze eCool Award. Read more about this award in Bob Coppedge's (@Simplex_IT) blog post: Craze eCool Award 2017 at this year’s Cleveland GiveCamp

One of the founders of Cleveland GiveCamp, Andy Craze, lost his battle with cancer in 2016, just prior to GiveCamp. His partner, Jane Winik, along with Simplex-IT’s Bob Coppedge, created the Craze eCool Award in Andy’s memory. In this video, Jane tells the story of the Craze eCool Award:

 

Cleveland GiveCamp Sponsors 2017

Cleveland GiveCamp Sponsors 2017

Thank you to the 2017 Cleveland GiveCamp Sponsors! Their support enables Cleveland GiveCamp to feed and provide resources for the hundreds of volunteers who have provided their talent to all the nonprofits served over the years!

GOLD SPONSORS

SILVER SPONSORS

PATRON SPONSORS

If you are interested in becoming a Cleveland GiveCamp Sponsor in 2018, click here!

 

Cleveland GiveCamp Steering Committee 2017

Cleveland GiveCamp 2017
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Working on the Cleveland GiveCamp Steering Committee has been very rewarding for Stuart. He has served on boards or in a leadership role in other organizations, but the horizontal structure of this team is unique to his experience.

Each member giving of their time and talent is one of the key reasons that Cleveland GiveCamp has continued to be successful for eight years!

Cleveland GiveCamp 2017 Videos

Our son, Kevin Smith, helped to create the official Cleveland GiveCamp 2017 video and a video for The Valentine Project's (@ValentineProj) Facebook page. Kevin also created the Cleveland GiveCamp Facebook Cover Video that is at the top of this blog post.

Before Cleveland GiveCamp Weekend

Pre-weekend tweets:

 

Day 1: Friday, July 21, 2017

Friday photos:

If your device does not support Flickr.com photos/videos,
please view them here.

Friday tweets:

 

Day 2: Saturday, July 22, 2017

Fun Saturday meal video:

Cleveland GiveCamp Facebook video Lettuce celebrate #CleGC day 3 #lunchrush by
Social Media Team Member Rebecca Ferlotti ( @RebeccaFerlotti)

Saturday photos:

If your device does not support Flickr.com photos/videos,
please view them here.

Saturday tweets:

 

Day 3: Sunday, July 23, 2017

Sunday photos:

If your device does not support Flickr.com photos/videos,
please view them here.

Sunday tweets:

 

After Cleveland GiveCamp Weekend

Sunday, July 23, 2017, social media buzz the evening of victory.

After Sunday, July 23, 2017, tweets:

 

 

BlueBridge Networks 2017 Non-Profit IT Innovation Summit

The week after Cleveland GiveCamp, Stuart was invited as a guest of Kevin Goodman (@KevinGoodmanBBN;), managing director and partner at BlueBridge Networks (@BlueBridgeLLC), to attend their 2017 Non-Profit IT Innovation Summit. At the end of the luncheon, Kevin surprised Stuart by asking him to talk about Cleveland GiveCamp 2017. Stuart was honored to be asked to speak about Cleveland GiveCamp, and mentioned the following organizations in his talk:

Here is a video that Great Lakes Geek (@GreatLakesGeek) blogger Dan Hanson (@DanHanson) captured of Stuart's 2017 Cleveland GiveCamp wrap-up talk:

 

What Others Say

Here are other blog posts about Cleveland GiveCamp 2017 weekend. Reading these blog posts is an excellent way to learn what Cleveland GiveCamp weekend is all about!

 

Interested in more? Please see our past Cleveland GiveCamp blog posts and other related blog posts here.

 

Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)

In case you have not heard the original A Letter from Camp, the Grammy Award-winning novelty song by Allan Sherman, here it is:

 

Comments

Submitted by Stuart Smith on Mon, 08/28/2017 - 20:18

Comment

Thank you again BVU: The Center for Nonprofit Excellence (@BVUVolunteers) for the Cleveland Indians (@Indians) baseball game tickets through the Indians Volunteer Challenge program! We had a good time at the game!

Here are our tweets/retweets from the evening we attended the game:

 

Twitter name
@sos_jr
Website
sosAssociates.com
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