First piloted by Dover Town Council in 2012, the Dover Greeters are a team of dedicated volunteers who are passionate about the area they live in, helping visitors from all around the world through their free guided talks and heritage walks.
This summer, Dover District Council awarded Dover Greeters with a community grant and CommunityAd caught up with Greeter Denise Smith who told us more about their wonderful, voluntary group.
Can you tell readers how Dover Greeters first started and what was the reason behind this?
Dover Greeters are part of an international group covering the whole world! The International Greeters Association was formed in New York in 1992 by a resident who loved where she lived and wanted others to share and appreciate her city. They are the Big Apple Greeters, still going strong today. From that little pippin, many other countries took up the idea, the first being in the UK.
Visit Kent heard of this idea in 2008 and thought it ideal to recruit and train volunteers in our corner to offer free tours to the thousands of visitors expected for the 2012 London Olympics. Kent Greeters were formed to offer tours and meet visitors arriving in Kent to signpost them safely on to London. After the Olympics were finished, many hard-working volunteers were pleased to go back to their ordinary lives and so Kent Greeters gently started to close, leaving a few dozen dedicated volunteers.
Dover Town Council thought this a very useful idea for Dover and helped form our own merry band of Greeters, renamed Dover Greeters and run on a completely voluntary basis. Visitors like what they see on social media and email to book a free tour, giving us a clue or two on what they would be interested in (history, military, nature etc), the time they have available and if they want a long ramble or a short walk along the seafront. We are not formal guides, don’t keep on about dates and political alliances, but we really love where we live and love meeting people and sharing info on our town and their town.
From your many guided walks in Dover, what would you say is your personal favourite and what is a client’s favourite?
My own favourite tour is along the seafront, finishing at the new Marina Curve. This gives time to signpost other places to visit (Castle, White Cliffs…) and to explain how the bay of Dover was formed, its amazing history, with nearly every king and queen visiting on route to the Continent and from the far end to point out a very large number of the interesting local sites, from the Roman lighthouse to the ferries and from the Napoleonic Western Heights Fort to the modern cruise terminal.
Visitors love sharing the stories we tell and love getting their heads around the very long timeline of our history and my very favourite comment was from a young backpacker who was amazed at seeing the ‘Tidy Ruins’ of St James church. She yelled “Wowee, this place is older than New Zealand”, before going to enjoy Channel Swimming stories in the White Horse!
This summer, you were given some funding from DDC. How will the money help Dover Greeters?
DDC recently awarded us a grant to enable us to continue our work of sharing the wonders of Dover, so that we can widen our remit a little and recruit more people interested in making Dover a serious contender in Britain’s Best Historic Town. Whichever way you look at it, we do have the most visible history in a small, but perfectly formed town! And only an hour from London by High Speed train!
What are your plans for 2022?
2022 looks very exciting and we are lucky enough to have the use of an adorable beach hut on the Marina Curve, so no more damp maps but cheerful and well-informed visitors who enjoy our stories.