Touchdown for a Good Cause: Volunteering with 48in48
As Atlanta prepared to welcome over a million visitors to the city for Superbowl LIII, KMSers pre-gamed as they do best…by volunteering at 48in48’s Super Service Event!
Now, there were some striking similarities to a typical Superbowl party. Imagine this scene … the KMS team huddled around a screen, surrounded by a crowd of excited people, an impressive spread of snacks, and some people sporting jerseys. But, instead of cheering on our favorite football teams, we were building websites for our partner non-profits.
Stimulated by the energy the 48in48 coordinators put into every event, developers, designers, and marketers spend 48 hours offering their expertise to build professional websites for 48 different non-profits. Over the course of the Super Service weekend, 126 volunteers donated an estimated $1.5 million dollars in services! Can someone say, touchdown?!
All weekend, KMSers participated in a variety of ways — each offering their unique skillsets to build successful websites.
Kara Hartnett, KMS Lead Technical Writer, lent her expertise by crafting compelling and concise website content. “I enjoyed taking the dense amounts of information the non-profits wanted to convey and boiling it down to the essential points,“ Hartnett said. “Websites nowadays are able to engage more users when they can quickly skim highlight points.”
Katie Hannan, KMS Marketing Specialist, offered her creative eye to the design and layout of the websites. “I loved learning about [the] non-profits in my community,” Hannan said, “It’s rewarding to know I made an impact and now these non-profits can reach more people and change lives…this was my first experience volunteering with 48in48, and it was nothing short of what I expected.”
Armed with WordPress and a creative vision, KMS created websites for 3 inspirational non-profits:
MindPeace Miracles: Founded by Elaine Alpert, MindPeace Miracles offers support, community, and hope to women after the loss of a loved one by suicide. Through this non-profit’s work, women are able to find support, resources, and tools to navigate life after devastating loss.
Dine for Atlanta: On the last Saturday of each month, Dine for Atlanta hosts a charity dinner to raise money for a local non-profit organization. By partnering with top Atlanta restaurants, Dine for Atlanta is able to amplify the dynamic Atlanta food scene while also donating 100% of ticket proceeds to rotating non-profit partners.
West Virginia Futbol Club (WVFC): As the largest Futbol Club in West Virginia, WVFC is a youth travel soccer club whose mission is to train athletes ages 8-19 to play soccer and instill life lessons. Learning about sportsmanship and teamwork, the players are outside exercising and engaging the community.
Halfway through the weekend, the sites were built but the work was not done yet! After all, the Big Game doesn’t end after the halftime show! Saturday evening through Sunday morning, KMS testers in Atlanta and Vietnam used their expertise to ensure all 48 websites not only looked fantastic but operated smoothly as well.
Thao Vo, KMS Quality Assurance (QA) Architect, led the Vietnam-based testing team for 48in48. His team performed risk assessments and exploratory testing to detect bugs. “We love testing and we are bug hunters,” Vo said, happy to lend his skills to the event. “KMS testers think that social contributions are one of our missions. Joining this event is a great chance for us to give [back].”
Vo went on to explain that participating in 48in48 was beneficial all around. “We improved our testing heuristics and bug detection skills,” he said. “By working directly with technical, passionate people around the world, we [also] level up our communication skills.”
All the volunteers participating in the event were very appreciative of the testing efforts by the KMS team. Additionally, at the end of the Super Service Event, 48in48 presented KMS with the “Galactic Gratitude” award for our awesome quality assurance and development efforts. Not only were we recognized for what we do best, but each of our project managers, Mush Honda, Kaushal Amin, Nilesh Patel, and Jeff Scott received a “Returning Rockstar” award.
As the weekend came to a close, the caffeine-fueled volunteers celebrated their hard work helping to build beautiful websites for 48 incredibly deserving non-profits. CBS46 attended the closing ceremony, covering the volunteer’s extraordinary efforts and determination to make their community a better place.
Needless to say, KMSers had a fantastic time volunteering with 48in48…and we are already looking forward to the next 48in48 event in October!!
