I teach high school math and science, and I teach an intro programming class once a year. I've tried to connect students with professional programmers, and I have never found any in town.
I'm just starting to do some professional work around programming. This is a great natural environment to do technical work - you work when it's gray and rainy for days on end, and go play when it's sunny and nice out. A lack of programmers also means there are a number of businesses in town that could really use some tech support. There's a critical business in town that still stores all of its customer information in 4 large filing cabinets. Their work is incredibly inefficient - if I pursue freelancing I'm going to approach them and see if they want a simple electronic system built.
Happy to tell you more about our local scene, my email is in my profile.
