3.14 National Pi Day and PieCamp Birmingham

Believe me. I am the last person to know very much about this mathematical constant (words stolen from Google search). I vaguely remember for reasons I will not mention that Pi is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle; approximately equal to 3.14159265358979323846. Oh. What the heck. I saw it on a T-shirt. A T-shirt I once washed a lot and hung in the closet.

This is not about Pi nor is it really about pie. This is about another reason I love Birmingham. I stalk follow an energetic group of people on Twitter.. They are young, socially conscious, inclusive, generous people who also love Birmingham and want it to be known for everything we love about it. This group has welcomed me as I have occasionally crashed their Lunch Bunch gatherings and Alabama Bloggers meet-ups. They are involved with FoodBlogSouth, Ignite Birmingham and, most recently, Alabama Social Media Association, among others. More importantly, they give back.

A recent conversation on Twitter led to celebrating the fourth anniversary of The Terminal and Pi Day with the first PieCamp Birmingham or, in the new language I am learning, #piecampbhm. Ted's Restaurant on Southside is providing the space and people are encouraged to bring pie (and milk) if possible to meet and share ideas.

This is what caught my eye, though, and is so typical of this amazing group of people:

Instead, if you can’t bring a pie with you on Monday evening (though I’d love for you to), I’d ask that you consider making a donation to the Birmingham Education Foundation (BEF). BEF grew out of Yes We Can, Birmingham is taking on what I believe to the major issue facing our metro area at this time – education. If you can’t give, I’d at least like to make sure that folks are aware of its existence and efforts.

I see a good future for the city I love and call home, Birmingham.