“Hackathon” Coding Event in Cedar Rapids Helps Nonprofits

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) — A nonprofit now has new tools, thanks to an event called “Hackathon” on Saturday.

The event was organized by Devs Do Good. West Des Moines high school student Connor Fogarty is behind the group and said he participated in his first charity hackathon in eighth grade. “I really enjoyed the experience, but I wanted to do [an event] it was more accessible for students,” Fogarty said.

For 10 hours, eleven people locked themselves in a conference room at the Kirkwood Center hotel and worked on a data management system for the nonprofit Can Play.

“Can Play recently merged with another organization, and so they kind of have these disjoint data sources,” Fogarty said. “Our goal is to take these kinds of separate data sources and merge them into one unified system.”

The event didn’t just provide a free solution to a complicated problem for a nonprofit organization. It was also an opportunity for students to learn more about coding and programming.

Hana Mohammed, a rising junior from Linn-Mar High School, was one of those present. She saw the Hackathon on Eventbrite and signed up because she wanted to learn something new.

“I’m part of my school’s robotics team, but I’ve mostly been doing hardware in the last year. And I kind of wanted to get into programming somehow. I thought that would be, like, a cool way to figure out what it was like and find out more,” Mohammed said.

For Fogarty, the event was a combination of helping a good cause, having fun and connecting with new people. ” I learned a lot. My team, I hope, learned a lot.

Devs Do Good accepts project applications from nonprofit organizations that need technology solutions.

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