There are big things and there are little things.
The big things are difficult and sometimes impossible. The little things are easier and usually doable, and, added together, they can be a big thing.
Such is the opportunity for individuals interested in doing something to promote their community to others, promote old-fashioned hospitality, and simply chat with strangers so that the strangers don't feel like strangers when they leave.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is looking for some part-time hosts for the Kinzua Visitors Center beginning next month.
A few hours a week greeting visitors, offering information, advice, some directions to attractions and an easy smile may seem like a miniscule thing in the grand scheme of tourism development, but for the people on the receiving end it can mean a lot. It can mean the difference between coming to Warren County once or coming here repeatedly and telling their friends back home that they felt right at home here.
People driving along Route 59 westward into the county have already experienced some of the beauty of the Allegheny National Forest rushing by their car windows. When they reach the Allegheny Reservoir they are met with an additional dose of what this area has to offer, and, for many of them, it is time to stop for a bit and soak it in. The Kinzua Visitors Center is strategically placed to give these visitors an opportunity to enhance their visit.
And, people driving east will be met with the broad, impressive face of the Kinzua Dam and are likely going to have questions.
A part-time gig at the visitors center is a great opportunity for retired folks, students on summer break and others to spend a few hours a week offering smiles and doing yeoman's work for the county's tourism effort. The pay comes not in dollars, but in personal satisfaction, and who can put a price on that?