About the Event
In the first three years of The Nerdery’s Overnight Website Challenge, volunteers have freely given over a million dollars worth of professional web development services to 39 nonprofit organizations. In the fourth year of this marathon coding event, volunteers took over the Continuing Education Conference Center on the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota to deliver nerdy deeds done dirt-cheap to nonprofits in the Twin Cities.
Highlights
- A visit by Senator Al Franken: The Junior senator from the great state of Minnesota came in to check on the competition and give encouraging words to the teams. He even found time to meet with Boba Fett and hang out with some of the dogs.
- Nerderizer 5000 Photo Booth: Dozens of photos captured during the pandemonium.
- Break Room: Late at night the nerds relieved some tech-stress by beating up on hapless computers.
- Monkey Business: A wild blue ape appeared halfway through the challenge and began to stalk his eternal foe, the giant yellow banana with a goatee.
- Tron Guy: Otherwise known as Jay Maynard from Faribault, MN made the trip up to the challenge and found himself mobbed by adoring fans.
For more highlights from the 2011 Twin Cities Overnight Web Challenge,
check out The Nerdery’s albums onVimeo and Flickr
The Pairings
When the web pros and nonprofits arrived in St. Paul early Saturday morning they had no idea whom they'd be working with. Below is a list of the final team pairings and links to learn more about them. Click on the name of the Nonprofit to view before and after pictures of their website work.
Nonprofit + Web Pro Team
Autism Society of Minnesota + The JWT League of Embetterment
Bloomington United for Youth + TST Media
Can Do Canine + Push & Run
Children's Program of Northern Ireland + Concrete5.mn
Children's Safety Centers + Team Redundancy Team
Clownfish Swim Club - Drop Shadows Not Bombs
Crossroads Adoption Services + Bedlam & Breakfast
Educate Tanzania + Nerdery Bigfoot Research Consortium
Minnesota Hands & Voices + Rainbow Ponycake
Northeast Residence Inc. + Word to Your Motherboard
Project 515 Education Campaign + Full Court Wordpress
St. Paul Public Schools Foundation + Drop it Like it's Hoth
SARA: Sexual Assault Resource Agency + Hard Corps
Someplace Safe + Team Venture
Springboard for the Arts + Blue Lazers
The Eye-Link Foundation + John Lennon's Miracle Sunrise Soda Shop Franchise
Working Family Resource Center + Ratchet
The Winners
Recognizing the winner of The Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge takes time, fittingly. No team lost anything but sleep while 18 nonprofit organizations won free websites that will better carry their mission forward. Judges were charged with naming one team that made the most transformational difference for their designated nonprofit, and they reached consensus on TST Media for their work for Bloomington United for Youth (BUY). Feast your eyes on this fabulous freebie that they’ve created.
Thanks again to our judges this year for all of their work:
- Christine Durand, communication director, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
- Christian Erickson, principal, Zeus Jones
- Dan Grigsby, founder, Drivetrain
- Dana Nelson, executive director, GiveMN.org
