Slave Labor: A Family Reunion Website

Last year, around the fourth of July, Gavin’s mom Bonnie asked us what we were doing next year on the fourth of July, wondering if we might be willing to go to a (then) un-planned family reunion for her family up in Chester, CA.  Bonnie’s family is large and scattered all across the country, so it seems like none of them see much of each other.  Hence, wanting to schedule a reunion!  So she went to work on it and we put a note on our calendars, a year in advance, about the upcoming reunion.

Fast-forward to a couple months ago.  Since Gavin has so rarely been in contact with his mom’s larger family, Gavin got to thinking that it’d be nice to know a little something about everyone who was coming.  That way, come the big day, people would know enough about each other in order to have a more meaningful conversation.  So, he set about to making a survey with lots of different questions and sent that survey out, requesting that people answer whatever questions they wish and, once complete, send the surveys back to him.

Gavin then turned to me and asked if I would create a website for him that would have people’s survey responses and pictures, etc.  I told him that I would create one and sketched a hazy idea and that was that.   I bought the domain for him and arranged for my cousin Danny to host the site.  I even began a Photoshop page to try to determine what it would really look like.  All was fine until President’s Day weekend, when Gavin practically held a gun to my head and basically said, “Finish the site this weekend, or else.  In return, I will give you no food, drink, or pay.”  Which is kind of an overstatement, but also kind of not.

So on a weekend when I was supposed to be thinking about the presidents of our fine country, I instead put together a website really quickly, making things up on the fly.  And, I am pleased to tell you that I was able to complete the website by Sunday afternoon (starting the afternoon before) — 60-some pages later.  Some of the pages are empty (containing only that person’s name and photo, because that’s all we have), whereas other pages are full, displaying that person’s contact information, survey & pictures.  The hope is that this website will help spur others along who haven’t yet filled out their survey to submit something so that they will have a representative space.

Anyway, a quick turnaround for my husband — one of the hardest clients I’ve worked for!

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6 Responses to Slave Labor: A Family Reunion Website

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