July 17, 2002
Center provides visitors direction
Visitor Center welcomes 50,000 people each year
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Wondering where to go in the area for fun or food, how to get there and how much it costs?
A quick stop at the Visitor Center can answer these questions and more.
Staffed by volunteers well versed in all things Traverse, the Center also features more than 320 brochures of area businesses and organizations.
"I wanted to find out what to do here before heading back to Chicago," said Ted Furman of Lake Zurich, Ill., who left the Center Friday morning with a sheaf of maps and brochures.
"I am going to visit the Old Mission Lighthouse, tour on a sailboat and maybe go to a concert or ride the Dinner Train."
The Center is a non-profit organization operated by the Traverse City Convention and Visitor's Bureau Education Foundation. More than 50,000 people come in annually, with peak National Cherry Festival days drawing between 1,500-2,700 people daily. The center also includes public restrooms and telephones, while its air-conditioned halls occasionally harbor refugees from the summer heat.
The center also assists people relocating to the Grand Traverse region.
"We not only reach residents but newcomers to the area can come and get information they need," said Kathy McCafferty, the manager of the Visitor Center.
Visitors come to Traverse City from around the world and Visitor Center volunteers have helped people from countries such as Yugoslavia, England, Japan and France. This 'trip around the world' is an exciting one for the volunteers.
"I really enjoy the foreign visitors who come in," said Bob Dean, a long-time volunteer with the center. "We've traveled a little bit so we've been able to make contacts with some of them. If they say they live outside of London, I know what they're talking about."
McCafferty believes her staff of 78 volunteers is the source of the Visitor Center's success. These dedicated volunteers help out year round, working in shifts of three or four hours at a time and rotating coverage as needed. The volunteers come from all walks of life, ranging from a retired professor to a stay-at-home mom to a dental assistant. Most have deep community and volunteer ties that extend into other service organizations, churches and schools.
"They are great people and so fun to work with," McCafferty said.
Jack Frye is a native of the area who decided to volunteer after retiring. He now spends his Thursday mornings at the Visitor Center, wielding maps, brochures and sage advice about an area he loves and knows intimately.
"It is really fun to talk to these people," said Frye, a volunteer for two years. "We've got a wealth of information so it makes your job easier."
Dean is also a native of Traverse City and said being a volunteer at the Visitor Center is a great way to meet people. Always active in the community, Dean also has been on the school board, planning commission and the Rotary Club. He is currently a member of the zoning board on Old Mission peninsula.
"I do know the area quite well and of course the area keeps changing, but I've been able to keep up with it in various ways, like the Rotary Club," he said. "Through these contacts, I see the influx of people coming into the area with all the skills and desires to live here in God's country."
Dean said that the biggest draw to the area for tourists is the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, with the Music House Museum coming in second.
"People are also interested in the wineries, the casinos or just wandering the countryside," noted Dean, who worked at Red Mill Lumber Company for 35 years.