Disaster recovery · Pagosa Springs, Colorado
Love Pagosa: a free volunteer hub for flood recovery in Pagosa Springs
When historic floods hit Pagosa Springs, Colorado, the Chamber of Commerce found itself matching volunteers with families and businesses by phone, spreadsheet and text message. Dr. Radhakrishnan KG, founder of WebNamaste and a fellow Rotarian, built them a free volunteer hub so the coordinators could get back to helping people.
The challenge
Plenty of people wanted to help. The hard part was organising them. Requests came in from every direction, and the coordinators had to work out who could do what, keep volunteers safe and covered by waivers, and log hours for the County. All of this on top of their own recovery work.
What we built
Requests for help
Residents, businesses and nonprofits describe what they need in their own words and agree to share their details with the volunteers who help.
Volunteer sign-up
Volunteers list their skills, sign the waiver and agree to the safety rules. Licensed tradespeople and medical professionals are referred to the County.
Shareable jobs
Every job has its own page and link, so volunteers can find one and pass it on to friends.
Project leads approve their own volunteers
Whoever runs a job gets a private link to approve or decline volunteers. If someone is left waiting, the hub sends the lead a reminder.
Broadcast messages
Coordinators can email or group-text all their volunteers at once, straight from their phone.
County ICS 214 logs
The County's ICS 214 activity log fills itself in from the sign-up records.
Furniture and appliance donations
Neighbours post what they can give or what they need and connect directly. Contact details are only shared with people who respond.
Flyers and paperwork
Flyers, announcements, volunteer certificates and incident reports, all in one place.
Who it serves
The hub is run by the Pagosa Springs Area Chamber of Commerce, the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation and Pagosa Springs Main Street. The local Rotary club's job coordinator now uses it too, and the Town and County asked for the donation board.
- Pagosa Springs Area Chamber of Commerce
- Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation
- Pagosa Springs Main Street
In the news
9NEWS Denver
Pagosa Springs Chamber connects flood cleanup volunteers with neighbors in need
Read the 9NEWS storyHow it was built
WebNamaste built the hub pro bono on Lovable, working closely with the Chamber's events coordinator. When she emailed about a problem on the ground, the fix was often live the same day.
Bring it to your community
Every chamber of commerce and relief team should have a tool like this. If yours needs one, we'll share what we've learned and help you set it up.
Built with love by Dr. Radhakrishnan KG · WebNamaste