Volunteer greeters say hello — for now
Jul 30, 2010 Travel
Naila Qureshi has lived in Houston for 14 years, but she didn’t notice how green her city was until she started showing around visitors from foreign countries two years ago.
VOLUNTEER GREETERS: Sixteen cities on four continents offer tours by volunteer greeters that are part of the official Global Greeter Network: Chicago, Houston, New York and Toronto in North America; Adelaide and Melbourne, Australia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and in Europe, Belgrade, Serbia; Brighton and Kent, England; in France, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Paris and Pas-de-Calais; and The Hague, Netherlands. For details on how to request a tour, go to links for individual programs through
globalgreeternetwork.com.
BIG APPLE GREETER: To contribute to the fundraising campaign for Big Apple Greeter, visit
savebigapplegreeter.org.
There are also many variations of the greeter concept that aren’t part of the official Global Greeter Network. A business district in Santa Monica, Calif., started a program last year called Downtown Ambassador that sends a staff of 30 paid greeters into the streets to offer help to tourists.
An estimated 10 to 20 million people visit the 40-square-block area of Santa Monica each year, said Andrew Thomas, director of operations at the Bayside District Corporation, which runs the downtown ambassador program.
“It’s crazy,” said Thomas. “On any given crowded weekend, we could have 80,000 people out here, so it gets pretty busy.”
Santa Monica’s greeters approach tourists who seem lost or just unsure and ask if they need directions or other help. They also have other responsibilities, such as reporting potholes or graffiti to the city, and escorting workers to their cars late at night.
“They always smile, they’re cheerful, they’re not afraid to approach people and say hello,” said Thomas. “We have a handful of native Santa Monicans on the ambassador team, and they really have a wealth of knowledge.”
Morse, in New York, said the volunteer greeters come from all walks of life. She has several doctors and retired teachers, a judge, a librarian, and a former federal prosecutor on her greeter roster.
“We look for people who love New York and can communicate that, people who are friendly and outgoing and can connect to a visitor quickly,” said Morse. “We look for people who have natural curiosity and want to learn more about New York, someone who has warmth and a hospitality that is innate.”
For greeters, the encounters are a chance to see their hometown through a fresh pair of eyes.
“We get a chance to visit things we didn’t even realize are in Houston,” said Ivan Butterfield, a Houston greeter who fields many questions about longhorns and cowboys. Butterfield has taken Russian graduate students to the rodeo and, with his wife, shown people around a local house made of beer cans.
“I can’t even imagine not doing it,” he said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38471800/ns/travel-travel_tips/
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