By Anna Skinner

With Grand Park bringing 1.5 million visitors to Westfield annually, Grand Park Marketing Manager Michelle Krcmery wanted to be sure the visitors were experiencing the full spectrum of Westfield.

Westfield Welcome came about as the solution.

“There was a need for a resource like this, and we heard a lot of feedback about how welcoming people at Grand Park are and how that exceeds into the city,” Krcmery said. “That is something we are already known for, so we wanted to brand that and extend it into other uses.”

The website dons a blog type component that features different topics, such as walking in Westfield, a virtual coffee tour and seasonal components like fall flavors and where to find them. There are also general interest articles.

“It gives us a lot more flexibility than the city website would to showcase fun and unique things going on,” Krcmery said. “We have so many tourists going through Grand Park. It is not only marketing Grand Park to visitors, it’s also marketing the city to visitors.”

The website was launched at the mayor’s State of the City address last month.

But another unique component of the site is the volunteer opportunities designed to strengthen the community.

“When people live somewhere, there’s nothing that makes you feel more a part of it than volunteering,” Krcmery said.

On the website, there are currently only volunteer opportunites through Grand Park, but Krcmery said she is interested in expanding with other opportunities through the community.

The team will be contacting nonprofits through the community and listing those opportunities on the site. Krcmery said nonprofits are more than welcome to contact her at [email protected] with a description of their volunteer opportunity to be placed on the site.

To learn more, visit westfieldwelcome.com.