Creche, the area's 112-year-old organization, has stepped into the computer age with a website.
After putting more than 30 hours into planning and building, Amy Turner, Creche trustee, and Elsa Hern, special projects committee chair, said that the website is up and running, thanks to Michael O'Brien.
Michael, a sophomore at Southwestern, is a self-taught web-designer who volunteered to help the organization build their site.
Article Photos
Amy Turner, left, presents Michael O’Brien with a certificate of appreciation for building Creche’s new website, while Elsa Hern, right, presents him with a Creche T-shirt.
P-J photo by Liz Skoczylas
"It's something that I like to do. All I do, really, is I code stuff, play soccer and I go to school. I really like it, coding is one of my main hobbies. Sometimes I'll code something, finish it and I'll get bored, so I have nothing to do. They gave me something to do, and I enjoyed doing it. It was fun," Michael said.
Ms. Hern was asked by Creche in January to set up a website. Michael's mother, Nancy, was at the board meeting when the website was discussed, and asked her son if he would help.
"At that point, Michael offered to do the website for us on a volunteer basis. We wanted the website so that the community could learn a little bit more about Creche and what we do," Ms. Hern said.
Michael and Ms. Turner worked together closely on the overall design of the website, which includes links for Creche history, membership, events, photos, donations and a link for the Creche newsletter, which prints three times a year.
"People have helped us through giving us money, which we greatly appreciate, but this is the first time we have had somebody do something labor-intensive for us, just out of community service. I just think that's really neat," Ms. Turner said.
Creche is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization that provides for the basic needs of newborns through children 18 years old in the Jamestown area. All of the money it raises is used to provide needed services to children, including baby clothing sewn by the members of Creche, children's clothing, cribs, beds, camperships and other children's necessities.
"We were so excited to get Michael, because we are nonprofit. We hold various fundraisers throughout the year to raise money to help needy children, but we don't have extra money for advertising. So, we really didn't have money to hire a designer. We knew that we wanted to do this, but we weren't sure how we were going to pay for it. It was just luck that Michael volunteered to do this for us," Ms. Turner said.
As a thank-you for his services, Ms. Turner and Ms. Hern presented Michael with a certificate and a Creche T-shirt. They said that the website will continue to be updated and expand.
The official Creche website is www.crecheforkids.org. It provides information on Creche, including links for membership and donations.