Weekend For Good 2023
Camp Sunshine was my team for my recurring favorite creative event. I was excited about this for three reasons. First, I was getting to do something with my old dog Sunshine’s name. Second, the camp is an incredible nonprofit organization that works with mentally challenged adolescents. Third…it was Weekend For Good!
I was assigned to the team as a general UX designer, along with a project manager and 3 web developers. Realistically, all 5 of our team was some level of web dev. And after a long struggle with an old Wix site, we all turned into content migrators, as we ended up needing to recreate the site from scratch in an updated EditorX platform.
About Camp Sunshine
Here’s a bit more about Camp Sunshine, in their own words.
There is a joyful spirit about Camp Sunshine that is transformative for every person who participates. We promote through words and actions a culture that honors each person with total acceptance and unconditional love.
Since 1983, Camp Sunshine has offered individuals with cognitive/developmental disabilities summer camp experiences in a safe, caring, and inclusive environment. We offer multi-day overnight camp sessions with activities designed to meet participants’ recreational, emotional, physical, spiritual, and relational needs. Uniquely, each camper is paired one-to-one with a volunteer counselor for their entire four days at camp. Camp Sunshine creates spaces for campers to feel included, learn from others, and grow in friendship. Within our programs, volunteers receive as much as they give and learn as much as they teach. Most of all, we have fun!
About Weekend For Good
As per usual, WFG donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in free creative work. The final tally of donations ended up being:
- 67 Volunteers
- 2,144 Hours
- $428,800 of tech help donated.
On top of that, the weekend really brings out a ton of great characters in Grand Rapids. A lot of representation from Mighty in the Midwest, Fusionary, Nicholas Creative, The Factory, and many other agencies in the city. Sure, it’s a place to network. But since you’re spending over 24 hours in a weekend with a good chunk of these people, you skip past networking pretty quickly. People are friendly, and it’s almost impossible to not make new friends every year.
