![More than 700 volunteers worked together on 23 community service projects for the first Santa Rosa Day of Service in 2016. [Special to the Press Gazette]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-4d4b77d6-3fea-2e35-e053-0100007fe439-e8a9b2d0.jpeg)
MILTON — Santa Rosa County’s second annual Day of Service takes place this Saturday, but so far volunteer numbers are falling short of last year’s, according to coordinator Daniel Hahn with the Santa Rosa County Emergency Management Office and the Support Alliance For Emergency Readiness. This year’s county-wide community service event takes place May 6.
Roughly 700 people across the county volunteered for the 2016 event on July 23, according to Hahn.
According to the event’s website at http://www.santarosa.fl.gov/dayofservice/, there were nine sponsors last year and five this year.
“We’ve gotten less response,” Hahn said. “Last year we helped a lot of people. We’re hoping to help more this time around.”
“We’ve had a decrease in everything,” Hahn said. “Last year, we were able to raise $6,500 and I had organizations contacting me saying ‘I have this many volunteers.’ Last year I had 700 volunteers total. A lot of people didn’t register and went to work with their church or organization and I imagine the same thing happen this year. So we won’t have an accurate account but based on ancillary information, the evidence says there are not as many sponsors and not as many affiliated volunteers. Organizations are not telling me how many people they’ve got going out. Maybe they’ll surprise me but right now, if we had to guess, if we had 400 people, I’d be happy but we also have fewer projects. Last year we had 26 projects. This year I think we’re at about 16.”
There are some positives, though.
“Last year, we only had one project on the south side,” Hahn said. “This year, I think we have four…There are positives with the negatives.”
Visit http://www.santarosa.fl.gov/dayofservice/ to see what projects are available. Click “Projects” on the right side of the screen. Each listed project has a point of contact and a phone number, email address, or both.
“Get out and do service,” Hahn said. “You’ll feel better.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Support for second Santa Rosa Day of Service down; volunteers needed