Dartmouth Visitor Centre is looking for new volunteers.

Full training will be given and there will be plenty of opportunities to shadow the other volunteers.

The Centre is open from Monday to Saturday between 10am and 4pm and they are only open on a Sunday in the school holidays.

Mary Lewis has been a volunteer for well over a decade and describes the role:

“The job involves greeting the visitors, finding out a little bit about them and their interests, telling them what we’re doing here and giving them advice and leaflets on places to go and see.

How long does it take to get up to speed? : I would say it would take a month or two to be reasonably au fait but it depends on your knowledge of the town, whether you live here or have just arrived from somewhere else but you have never finished because every time I come in here I find out something else.

“We choose when we’re able to volunteer and you can do as little or as much as you want to do.

“Recently there have been some visits and trips to restaurants where you get a percentage off and for example there was a nature-themed boat trip recently.

“Ideally we need an increase of around 50 per cent in the number of volunteers and Wednesdays seem to be the greatest challenge.”

“We don’t always operate a full day because of the shortage of volunteers.

Mary concluded by describing why she enjoys volunteering:

“I look forward to coming because it’s nice to be with people and I do like being able to help people.

“My career was in helping people so this is a continuation in a sense and it’s especially nice when people come back and say ‘we did that and it was lovely’.