Chances are, if you look anywhere in Santa Rosa County, you’ll find a person or an organization that is in need of something.
And every year, SAFER Santa Rosa steps up to the plate to help with those needs.
On May 6, SAFER Santa Rosa, in partnership with Santa Rosa County, is planning their annual Day of Service. It’s a day where they ask the community to rally together to help give back to locals and local organizations throughout the community.
This year, SAFER Santa Rosa is looking for volunteers to do a plethora of tasks including giving back to a south end organization that gives back to the community every day: The Good Samaritan Clinic.
The free clinic offers medical services to county residents thanks to funding from numerous area churches.
This year they are one of 14 projects during the Day of Service.
“These projects are submitted by people or organizations,” said Santa Rosa County Emergency Management Plans Chief Daniel Hahn. “We go with organization that say ‘We see a need for X, Y, Z.’”
And once SAFER Santa Rosa picks a handful of needs, they usually receive a number of donations to cover the cost of the projects.
“Almost every one of these organizations you see us helping (during the Day of Service)…those are organization that are out there helping people. So we like helping them,” Hahn said.
Hahn said last year, the Day of Service was held in July, and it was moved back to May this year to keep volunteers out of the scorching summer heat.
Last year, Hahn said volunteers signed up to work on certain projects, but only a handful of people signed up to work on projects in the south end of the county. Although he didn’t have a tally on the number of volunteers signed up to work on south end projects for the upcoming Day of Service, Hahn said he has a feeling there will be a need for volunteers in the south end.
“Last year we built a ramp on the back side of the Good Samaritan Clinic and we had a trailer that needed to be pressure washed and we could not get any volunteers in the south end,” Hahn said.
Instead, SAFER Santa Rosa had to truck people from the north end of the county down to the south end to work on the projects.
“I love that project (Good Samaritan Clinic project) because they do so much good work in the community,” Hahn said. “Anything we can give back to them, we’re happy to. Volunteering feels good, and everyone should be doing it.”
Of the 14 total projects, three projects are located in the south end of the county and one project is county-wide.
And Hahn said just because you live in the south end of the county doesn’t mean you can’t work on a project in the north end of the county.
“I think last year I worked on 5 projects total,” Hahn said. “All you have to do is pick a project and contact a project manager.”
Hahn said a list of the projects is located at www.santarosa.fl.gov/dayofservice. From there, click on “Projects” on the right side of the page and on that page will be a list of projects and project managers you can get a hold of to sign up to volunteer.
Hahn said that he is hoping that because SAFER Santa Rosa is holding the event earlier in the year this year that it will encourage more people to sign up to volunteer.
“We were hoping the weather would be better for people and we’d get more volunteers. We’re hoping to draw high school youth or sports groups out to do stuff,” Hahn said.
There is still time to register as a volunteer, sponsor or submit a project for consideration, and you can do so at www.santarosa.fl.gov/dayofservice.
