Friends & Neighbors: Carolyn Kamps

Published 10:23 pm Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Carolyn Kamps is the first person many visitors to Dalton meet.

Kamps is a marketing assistant at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center and manages the visitors center in the upper level of the trade center.

“I think it gives them a good feeling to know they can actually come and see somebody, talk to somebody and find out where to go,” Kamps said.

Kamps, a 1962 graduate of Dalton High School, has worked for the trade center as receptionist since May 1998. About three years ago, the Dalton Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), which had been on the lower level of the trade center, moved to Tunnel Hill. The visitors center, which had been part of the CVB, moved upstairs, and Kamps added the job of managing it to her duties.

Before coming to the trade center, Kamps worked in downtown Dalton for Wachovia for 17 years.

Travelers, she says, are drawn to the visitors center by signs on I-75.

“A lot of them are just looking for maps. Some of them are looking for things to do in the area,” she said.

The visitors center has hundreds of pamphlets detailing things to do in the area and across the state.

Many people who stop are Civil War enthusiasts, looking for directions to local historical sites, which Kamps provides, even drawing on the maps of the area she passes out.

Kamps said one of the most unusual requests she has received was from a man looking for a place where he could pick his own fruit. But she says there aren’t many questions she can’t answer.

“If I can’t find it in the state travel guide, I call the state welcome center. There are several ladies who have been working in this field for 30 years and they really know the state well,” she said.

Since the visitors center is just inside the upper-level entrance of the trade center, Kamps also fields questions from people arriving for events at the trade center.

“If it’s really, really busy, we have a lot of visitors asking where to go. I’m the first person they see,” she said.

Kamps said she talks to about 6,000 people in person a year, in addition to fielding thousands of telephone calls.

“Some people will call me ahead of time for carpet mill tours and I arrange those,” she said.

She says the number of visitors she meets and calls has been increasing over the past few years as business at the trade enter has grown.

“It’s nice to be part of something that is expanding and growing,” she said.

Kamps, who goes through 24 hours of state training a year, says the constant stream of visitors helps break up the monotony of sitting at a desk all day.

“The best part of the job is meeting the travelers, meeting the people. I love that. I love not knowing who will come in the door next and where they are going and what they will be looking for,” she said.

“Sometimes it’s families. Sometimes it’s newlyweds. Sometimes it’s single people, and it’s just nice talking to all the different people,” she added.

After graduating from high school, Kamps moved to California, where she lived for about 10 years and worked for Beverly Hills National Bank. She met her husband Michael, a plant manager for Shaw Industries, when she was visiting family in San Antonio, Texas.

After marrying, the two decided they wanted to live in a small town, and they moved to Dalton in 1974.

“We’ve been in Dalton ever since,” she said.