NYCares Tracker

Problem Statement

I like volunteering. But I can't stand registering for projects.

NYCares' projects fill up FAST. New projects are posted their site about a month ahead of time, and reach capacity within a day or two. It's not particularly fun to have to time when you check the site, nor is it to spam-refresh every day hoping for a random deregistration to open up a slot.

Since NYCares' site does not natively support email notifications when new projects are posted, I figured I'd implement it myself.

This application checks for open weekend projects in Manhattan and sends me a nicely formatted email with project names, locations, and signup links for any projects I haven't seen before.

Additionally, I've added a filter to remove certain projects I am not interested in seeing.

Tech Stack

I am using AWS Lambda to run the code, AWS EventBridge to schedule Lambda invocations, AWS DynamoDB to record which projects I've seen, and Github Actions to automatically redeploy my Lambda on code push. Everything works really smoothly and I'm able to sign up for pretty much every project I want to attend.

Considerations

Does automating signups give me an unfair advantage over other volunteers?

Is it fair for me to use this tool to automatically sign up for projects? That’s debatable. I’ve described this tool to a couple of people, and no one has challenged me on it. Perhaps they either don't mind, or they choose not to speak up.

That said, I believe everyone has certain skills, and we're all allowed to use those skills to get ahead in areas where it makes sense. In a world full of competitive opportunities, leveraging technology is just part of the game.

➞ Check out the code on Github