Release Date: 11/4/2011

Contact: Diana L. Spencer, 410-887-4243 Phyllis T. Reese, 410-887-5098

TOWSON, MD. - Shawn and Stephanie Grimes, owners of Shawn's Bits and Campfire Apps and 1998 graduates of Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts, return to the school each Monday afternoon to lead a new club they founded. The group, which is teaching students and teachers how to create application programs (called "apps") for mobile devices, began meeting in late October.

"Several teachers and students attended the first sessions," said Liberty Grayek, magnet coordinator at Patapsco. "We think it will be a popular club. Those who attended were very excited about the potential of what they will be learning."

According to a report issued earlier this year by MarketsandMarkets, a market research and consulting company, global sales of mobile applications - for devices such as iPhones, iPads, and Androids - was $6.8 billion in 2010 and is expected to reach $25 billion by 2015.

"There is a real talent shortage in the Baltimore mobile development community," said Stephanie Grimes. "My husband and I recently attended a conference for iPhone development and were inspired by a talk that was given on getting young people, particularly females, involved in the app development community at an early age. We knew that Principal Ryan Imbriale had been eager to get some sort of tech group or mobile development group started at the school. We approached him with the idea, and it took off from there. We want to share our passion for this with the students and hopefully encourage them to consider any sort of development or technology field for possible career choices."

The Grimes' companies have released five apps and focus on developing apps for children, parents, and teachers. In addition to being graduates of Patapsco, the couple remains connected to the school because Shawn's mother, Terri, is employed there.

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