How far we have come. There was a time where I was stepping out into the world and despite the quality of the industry connections I did have, I felt very alone. I longed for a scene. Not the San Francisco tech scene. Not the New York tech scene. I longed for a scene that embraced everything that was already great about Philadelphia. The pieces were there, but they were fragmented.

2 years later, I’ve never been more sure that we’ve succeeded in catalyzing that thing that I, and many others, so disparately wanted. How we got here is a whole other story. But I wanted to share my latest excitement.

Geeks who Give is a post-Barcamp Philly brainstorm. The principle is simple, and very close to my heart:

Everyone has something to contribute. Long term goals include idea, goods & services, and resource banks from which we can draw as well as coordinating volunteer opportunities on an individual basis and organizing large scale volunteer efforts for continued organization-based support.

The vision is for this to happen organically, for those things which resonate to surface, and those which don’t to naturally recede. Everyone in the community is invited to participate at whatever level they feel most comfortable — from planning & organizing outreach to attending events — to blogging, promoting and evangelizing the cause.

We are more than the sum of our parts, and together, we are capable of anything.

Geeks who Give has organized their first event for this upcoming Tuesday, December 9th at National Mechanics. They will be hosting a Food Drive & Tweetup to benefit Philabundance. The event will take place at National Mechanics in Old City from 6 to 9pm.  At 7pm, local food podcasters Fork You will be giving a cooking demo with non-perishable food items. The event will be followed with everyone’s favorite, TechKaraoke at 9pm.

Admission is a minimum of 5 non-perishable food items. The food items must be packaged in boxes, cans or plastic bottles, and should not have to be refrigerated. In addition to drink specials, guests will receive 1 raffle ticket for the first 5 food items, and more tickets for additional food items. The current list of raffle prizes includes:

• Dinner with the City Paper food critic, David Snyder, PhilaFoodie,
• Dinner for Two at Fork in Philadelphia,
• A Gift Certificate and T-shirt from Tattooed Mom’s,
• Treats courtesy of Open Source Cupcakes,
• A $75 gift certificate to the Wine School of Philadelphia.

And more prizes are being added every day.

I encourage everyone to join us for this event, bring your donations, and help out an incredibly important cause in our city.