Camp Alert: Get notified on your favourite campsite availability in BC, Alberta, and National Parks

In response to the recent surge of reservations on the BC Parks Discover Camping website, BCIT Mechanical Engineering Assistant Instructor Adam Marciniak developed Camp Alert as an easy-to-use platform to that allows campers to sign-up for an email alert on their favourite campsite availability in BC, Alberta, and National Parks across Canada and the United States. The standard rate is $5 per alert received with the option for text messages.

With an interest in software development, Adam started building Camp Alert as a small side project outside of his job at BCIT. Adam self-taught himself to build a website with the many free online resources available. He started with small projects that could be relevant to his Mechanical Engineering classes at BCIT and continued to build on new skills as he learned more specific technologies along the way.

Campers are quick to jump on using Camp Alert

Since Camp Alert launched at the beginning of June, more than 5,000 people have signed-up to receive email notifications about their campsite availability. Of those who have signed-up, 1,267 people have been emailed about their spots opening up with the rest still waiting for an availability. Adam has also seen tremendous traffic to the website with 6,000 people visiting the site within the last three days.

“The feedback from campers who use Camp Alert has been superb! It’s especially rewarding to hear people get real value out of this website,” said Adam Marciniak. “It feels great knowing something I made by myself and taught myself has had such an impact on the community.”

To date, thousands of campers have shared their success in securing an available campsite via Camp Alert.

Text message alerts and expanding into campsites beyond BC and Alberta

In response to the tremendous demand for Camp Alert to expand its services beyond BC and Alberta campsites, Adam successfully added National Parks across Canada and the United States to the website. Additionally, users, specifically those with RVs, now have the ability to choose campgrounds based on vehicle and size requirements.

When it comes to being notified on available campsites, users have the option to receive text message notifications and choose a “Pro-plan” where campsite availability for users are checked every three minutes, as opposed to the previous 30 minutes.

Note to media: Adam Marciniak, BCIT Mechanical Engineering Assistant Instructor, is available for interview about Camp Alert. Please contact Amy Chen, 778-384-7245.