SOS volunteers, the rock app that is helping Romagna

Thirty thousand volunteers in Romagna these days coordinate through an app. It’s called SOS Volunteers. Except it’s not the app of the Civil Protection, of Emilia Romagna or even the app of a technological multinational: it’s a app to organize rock concertschanged overnight and adapted for emergency.

This small, large company bears the signature of Fabio Zaffagnini, who is a rocker, a startupper and also a hacker. And above all a dreamer. The first time I met him, it must have been 10 years ago. She had founded a strange startup: it was called Trail Me Up, and she aimed to collect the experiences of all the trekkers, the walkers, who ventured on unexplored paths, filming everything with GoPros, those little cameras that you attach to your helmet. It was a crazy romantic idea, just like the second one he had, only the second one was successful: get the Foo Fighters to perform with a thousand amateur rockers in his Cesena. Thus was born the enterprise of Rockin 1000, the most formidable community of rock players.

They have been giving concerts by 1000 musicians in all stadiums of the world for years. Until last Tuesday, when there was a flood, Zaffagnini was in Milan and in one night he took the Rockin 1000 app and transformed it in a volunteer app. It was enough for him to change the categories: instead of musicians there are volunteers, and instead of concerts there are things to do (shoveling, cleaning, carrying food). She was immediately adopted by the mayor of Cesenathen from those of Forli And Faience and today there are 18 Romagna administrations that use it. And precisely 30 thousand volunteers.

Technically it is not used to divide shifts and tasks but it is an indispensable one point of contact between administrations and citizens. The easiest way to bring together those who need help and those who want to lend a hand. Because for beautiful things sometimes you don’t need money, your heart is enough.