COCOA BEACH -- Organizers of the seventh annual Surfing Santas event, which lays claim to being world's largest spectacle of its type, is looking for dozens of volunteers.
The "elves" are needed for activities leading up to the Christmas Eve surfing event, which last year drew about 300 Santas on surfboards, 18 skydiving Santas and more than 4,000 spectators, and at the event itself.
"We need as many volunteers as possible," said Wanda Speir, who is helping organize the event.
Money raised from the event, which mostly comes from T-shirt sales, go to two local nonprofit groups, the cancer charity Grind For Life and the Cocoa Beach Surf Museum.
George Trosset created the Surfin' Santas tradition, starting it as a family celebration. In subsequent years it morphed into something much bigger, drawing surfers and spectators from all over the United States. Trosset and others have searched for other similar events that are bigger than the Cocoa Beach Surfin' Santas - from California, to Canada to Australia - and so far none have come close to drawing the crowds like the one in Brevard County.
This year Trosset and others are trying to significantly boost the number of participants and spectators - not to mention the amount of money raised for the charities - and bring more media attention from around the world to Cocoa Beach and the Space Coast..
Speir said volunteers are needed now to help sell T-shirts leading up to event. At the event itself, she needs volunteers to also sell T-shirts and also to help set up tents and tables, sell raffle tickets, pick up trash and other activities.
For high school students looking for community service hours, Speir said she would sign letters to school officials in assisting in that requirement.
Speir can be reached at wspeir@cfl.rr.com.
For more information about this story contact Wayne T. Price at 321-242-3658 or wprice@floridatoday.com.
