On Sept. 17, 25 volunteers from Sarasota’s business community spent the morning refreshing the grounds at Save Our Seabirds, a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center on City Island. They spread mulch, weeded and tidied the outdoor campus. Your Observer reported the completed work on Sept. 22. The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce’s event page had listed the center’s three-acre sanctuary as a project for the morning, with planting, mulching and weeding on the plan.
The work was part of Fall for Sarasota, the chamber’s annual effort to connect local businesses with nonprofit organizations through hands-on service. The chamber described the 2026 initiative as its fifth year and set a goal of 500 volunteer hours over two service days. WWSB-TV’s Sept. 18 report covered the wider program as volunteers worked at The Bay Park Conservancy and listed Save Our Seabirds among the participating projects. The Seabirds project was one piece of a broader schedule, but the morning’s task at the center was specific: care for the grounds around a place that rehabilitates wild birds.
The chamber’s listing described a sanctuary where rescued birds can recover and said volunteers would plant flowers, spread mulch and weed garden beds. After the event, Your Observer confirmed that the 25-person team mulched, weeded and spruced up the grounds. The article did not report a count of plants, beds or square feet completed, so the work is best understood as a concentrated refresh rather than a measured overhaul.
The local paper’s photos and captions identify Allison Hunter of the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation among the volunteers. Reporter Dana Kampa also wrote that several participants, including Karla Romero of the same foundation, were visiting Save Our Seabirds for the first time. They said they appreciated learning more about the rescue’s work. The morning therefore connected two forms of service: tending a shared outdoor space and giving new visitors a closer look at a local wildlife organization.
The volunteer group drew from businesses and civic organizations around Sarasota. Your Observer listed participants from Michael Saunders & Company, Northwestern Mutual Sarasota-Manatee, Gecko’s Hospitality Group, Preferred Shore Real Estate, Optima Construction Group, Visit Sarasota County, BayFirst National Bank, Caldwell Trust and Florida Financial Advisor, along with the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation. That roster shows how a chamber-organized service project can bring people from different workplaces onto one nonprofit campus for a few hours of useful work.
Save Our Seabirds says it rescues and rehabilitates sick and injured wild birds and works toward their release. Its campus is also a place where visitors can learn about birds and environmental stewardship. The chamber’s project description tied the garden work to that setting: it asked volunteers to refresh the sanctuary for both its feathered residents and the people who come to learn about them. The available reporting does not say that any birds were handled during the shift, and the volunteers’ job should not be confused with veterinary or rehabilitation care.
Fall for Sarasota offered other ways to help during the same week. The chamber’s calendar listed projects with groups serving foster and adoptive families, children, older residents, people with vision loss and families seeking food support, as well as schools and arts organizations. WWSB reported on another part of the initiative at The Bay, where volunteers weeded, trimmed and cleaned the waterfront park ahead of its anniversary celebration. Together, the reports show a program built around matching local volunteers with the practical work nonprofit partners identified.
At Save Our Seabirds, that meant a morning outdoors, with mulch and weeds as the immediate assignment. The chamber’s event calendar gave volunteers a clear place, time and task; the later report documented 25 people carrying out the refresh. The story does not need a dramatic rescue or a large tally to show what happened: local workers spent part of their day helping maintain a sanctuary and learning more about the organization on City Island.
For the center, groundskeeping is one small part of maintaining a campus used for wildlife care and public learning. For the participants who had never visited before, the service day also opened a door to that work. The Sept. 17 project was brief, but it left the organization with refreshed outdoor spaces and gave 25 volunteers a direct way to contribute to a place that cares for injured wild birds.
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