Volunteer retention, a product of volunteer engagement and motivations, is often cited as a difficulty in participatory sciences. Florida LAKEWATCH, one of the country’s largest participatory science programs, has had notable success with retention of its volunteers. Since its inception in 1986, LAKEWATCH has monitored the monthly water quality of over 6000 sites across more than 3000 lakes, rivers, and coastlines around the state of Florida. In 2024 LAKEWATCH had 883 active volunteers collecting water samples, approximately 26.9% of whom have been actively sampling in the program for over 10 years. In this study, we sought to better understand the factors enabling this high volunteer retention through a research survey of LAKEWATCH participants. Our findings will examine volunteer value orientations, motivations for participation both at the start of their tenure and at present, levels of engagement in the program, and specific perceptions of waterbodies and their management. We also collected feedback on the engagement options the program provides (e.g. newsletters, annual meetings, and pamphlets). All results will be compiled with general demographic data, as well as volunteer length of service, enabling an in-depth investigation of volunteer retention. We will also discuss findings in comparison with other recent studies of volunteer motivations, values, and retention. The survey has been approved by the University of Florida research ethics board and is currently being distributed; preliminary results will be presented in the hopes of spurring discussion and collaboration among other freshwater participatory science programs. Our research will also generate information that may be useful to other participatory science practitioners and programs looking to increase volunteer retention.