Donna has been helping me (Scott Sanfilippo) Tweet and blog all night long during our 24-hour programming marathon known as Program-A-Thon. I happened to catch her sound asleep at her desk without her knowing I was there. Oh well! Gotcha Donna!

Solid Cactus Webmaster, Jeff, pays a surprise visit at 4am ringing a cowbell to make sure everyone was up and awake during this 24-hour programming marathon. Jeff has not been seen since.

Greg from Call Center stops by with a dose of super energy in the form of cappuccino to keep the programmers and designers moving along in this 24-hour programming marathon to get our clients ready for Cyber Monday.

Donna plays trivia for prizes, Joe stops by for a visit and Jon supports the team all during the 24-hour marathon to get our clients ready for Cyber Monday!

Donna Talarico lets some of the programmers know it’s Friday….. but really, really, really early Friday! There’s still hours to go in this 24-hour marathon of programming and design.

It all began Thursday morning at 9am and just wrapped up a few minutes ago – Solid Cactus‘ first 24-hour Program-A-Thon.

We did this in order to offer our customers the last minute chance to get a redesign, new features for their store or even a new store in time for the biggest shopping event of the year, Cyber Monday. When it was all over, dozens of projects were completed and a good time was had by all involved.

Special thanks to the entire store dev team (designers and programmers) as well as those who provided support in other ways including:

* The staff at call center sent a food tray up to Shavertown.

* Mark Sanfilippo helped set up decorations.

* Scott and Donna did updates on Twitter and posted blogs throughout the night.

* Greg Kosicki brought an espresso machine, made lattes and brought some snacks.

* Cathy Kolcun stopped by with some snack food.

* Robyn Snyder, Chris Martin, Jeff Mancini, Brian Emershaw and Joe Domkowski all stayed late to help feed the group.

* Joe and Katrina Domkowski made a trip back late last night with more food.

* Joe Palko came in around 1am with coffee.

* Jon Tenenbaum stopped in with snacks and was the official “spinner” for the piñata game at 2am.

* Jeff Li came in with his cowbell (to no delight from the programming team) around 4am and helped us videotape some more footage.

* Patty Sleboda brought in coffee and breakfast food this morning.

* Finally, a special thanks to Donna Talarico. Donna shopped for all of the prizes and decorations, organized games to play throughout the night and made sure everyone was awake and having a good time while they worked. She made it through the full 24 hours along with the programmers and deserves a lot of credit. She also helped us get some local press coverage of the event that should appear in the Sunday paper this weekend.

As Greg Davis put it in a staff email this morning, “This was a great event that exhibited the continued teamwork that exist at Solid Cactus. Thanks to everyone for their part in making it a success!!”

My day is going to be spent editing the hours of video footage shot over the course of the marathon, so stay tuned for videos throughout the day! As far as the folks who worked around the clock, I can almost bet that their day is going to be spent in bed.

As the night rolled on, games were played, the pirate pinata suffered it’s demise and someone brought out the XBox for some late night/early morning gaming! Here are some pics:

Lindsay and Jon playing a little XBox.

John waking up from a 30 second power nap!

Adam taking a swing at the pirate pinata.

The demise of the pinata and the reward that awaits.

Keith opening a prize.

Jon surveying his win.

Greg from Call Center stops by to.... clean up???

Donna and Jeff with some prizes we gave away.

Chris showing off a prize he won.

John showing off a prize he won.

Fact or Crap? Neither, it's Adam with a prize he won.

Donna Talarico, with camera in had, caught several of our store dev team members during some light moments overnight during our 24-hour programming and design marathon. Here are some of them:

The pirate pinata still in one piece just waiting to get busted!

Chris sneaking some BBQ pork brought in by Joe and Katrina D.

Chris opening a prize.

Adam opening a prize.

Chris unveiling his new red nose.

Jeff, Keith and Joe grabbing a snack.

Robyn from Internet Marketing checking things out.

by Donna Talarico

Solid Cactus fuels eCommerce for online businesses of all kinds. But what fuels Solid Cactus? Well, during a 24-hour programming marathon for Cyber Monday, it’s junk food, pizza, more junk food, and COFFEE. And lots of it.

Around 10:00 p.m. I received a frantic message via IM from my colleague, Keith. The programmers upstairs had drank the last sip of coffee. In order for the programming marathon to continue, for those fingers to program online stores and features, for those brilliant minds to stay alert, we needed more coffee. It was an emergency.

I hopped in my not-so-trusty Dodge Neon and made a mad dash through the pouring rain through the curves and twists of Lehigh Street and up 309 to the pink, brown, and orange coffee shop. The parking lost was empty.

Not many people gettin’ coffee in these parts around 10, I thought to myself, already plotting to play a terrible trick on the programmers by shooting a make-believe video of me buying decaf. So, I had camera in hand as I pulled open the door. No. Scratch that. I didn’t pull open the door. But I tried. It was locked. I waved to a friendly young lady and she came to greet me. This was our conversation.

I called Lindsey, another superstar programmer,  and told her the bad news. I circled back to Cactus and picked her up and we headed to Sheetz, a local convenience store chain. I asked if they had boxes of coffee. They didn’t. Lindsey even rephrased the question again more clearly in case they didn’t understand me trying to explain what I talking about.

Then, we went to Curry Donuts, another local doughnut chain. They did not have large to-go boxes readily available. In fact, she suggested that we call ahead next time we need them so they have enough coffee ready to go.

As a last ditch effort, we went to McDonald’s and ordered a bunch of large coffees. And, we had to wait a while, holding up a line of eight cars. At this hour, they didn’t have enough coffee brewed. At least it meant it was fresh.

It was an adventure. It wasn’t easy. But we persevered. Fuel for our programmers? Check! Fuel for eCommerce. Check!

Speaking of coffee, we’re nearing the stroke of midnight and that means Joe Palko should be here mometarily with more, well, Joe!