What does #48in48 look like, with volunteers from various cities along the east coast working on creating websites for nonprofits in 48 hours? Hint: it involves sleeping on gigantic bean bags. And lots and lots of coffee.

Here’s an event recap from our Director of Web Solutions, Vanessa, who volunteered her time with #48in48 last weekend:

FRIDAY

Volunteers started arriving at the coworking space, American Underground, around 5:30pm. We checked in and were introduced and seated with our teams.

Next, we chose which nonprofit we wanted to build a site for. I chose Epilepsy Association of North Carolina. I got to speak with my nonprofit to gather more information.

Later, 48in48 provided dinner. Then the building began!

That evening, two of my teammates and I spent the night at the co-working space, napping and building our sites. Several people stayed overnight, whether they returned to their hotel rooms after driving from Atlanta earlier that day, slept on one of the enormous bean bags in the TV room, or made themselves comfortable in one of the bunk beds tucked away in the back of the building.

SATURDAY

On Saturday, I finished my first site! Then I started a second for PTA Thrift Shop. We were fueled by more free meals from #48in48.

The nonprofits were invited to American Underground to meet all the volunteers. I got to meet Pat and Barbara from PTA Thrift Shop, and talk to them about their website needs.

I continued working on their site until about midnight, then got some rest.

SUNDAY

I continued working on the PTA website. Pat came by to visit with me again. Around 5pm 48in48 had a “show and tell” and we got to see some of the websites volunteers built. Here are screenshots of mine:

• Epilepsy Association of North Carolina – Hoping to see this site live soon!
• PTA Thrift Shop – Feel free to visit at https://ptathriftshop.org/.

48in48 continued working on quality assurance and prepping the sites for launch that evening and Monday morning, and the volunteers started heading home. I stayed till about 7pm on Sunday working on the PTA website, then headed home. All in all, it was 48 hours of web development, but with time to meet the nonprofits, work with other teams, and of course, nap.

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped make 48in48 a successful event for so many area nonprofits!

This post was also published on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/behind-the-scenes-look-48-straight-hours-web-good-cause-vanessa-smith/.