Just Plain Neighbors: Greenfield's visitor center lives up to its name

[ Originally published on: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 ]

How does the figure 835,000 visitors sound? Pretty impressive. That's the latest count for The Visitor Center in Greenfield and still counting. On Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. there will be an open house at the center to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the opening in 1999.

You'll see all the local crafts and enjoy the food, free raffles for items right there in the center. I talked to Ann Banash, the first director, who left that post last summer. As I expected, there was nothing there in the building, that we are used to today.

''A couple months before we opened, the building was absolutely empty. There were the vending machines outside and that was all,'' she said. ''It's taken 10 years to get where it is now ... and it's always a work in progress.''

The tourism center is under the supervision of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce. In the beginning, Duncan Hamilton, son of director Ann Hamilton, was a full-time employee and he helped Banash get the furnishings they needed and set up the necessary exhibits.

Jeanne Douillard is now the director.

People probably don't remember, but, the first idea was to have the center on Interstate 91 in Bernardston. When that fell through, the push was to have a building off the highway and then they could sell items from local people.

''We wanted to pull people off the highway and have them stay locally. We have had visitors from every state in the union and from at least 50 different countries,'' Banash said.

Christine Conniff dealt with the local artists and crafts people. Douillard handles that now. Robert Taylor is still part-time on the staff.

''And we couldn't do it without the volunteers,'' Banash said.

And I'll put in a plug right now -- volunteers are needed from 1 to 5 p.m. on Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Call 773-9393, if you'd like to do it. I've been volunteering for the 10 years, two Tuesday mornings a month and it's fun.

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