Space Coast Florida — Volunteers willing to give their time for “citizen diplomacy” show foreign visitors local sites as members of the Florida Space Coast Council for International Visitors.

“The State Department brings in important business persons and we provide the escort and introduce them to local business leaders,’’ said council president Roger Shurtleff Jr. of Satellite Beach, known to some as Lord Whitley Roger Shurtleff.

“We take them to places like the Naval Ordinance Test Unit (NOTU) up at Port Canaveral, the Air Force station and of course NASA. We offer a lot and we’re on the coast so we get a lot of the visitors,’’ he said.

The State Department provides interpreters for the groups that come from many countries. Most recently the council helped visitors from Brazil, Cambodia, Croatia, Spain and Yemen who were studying climate and development of alternative sources of energy, according to Shurtleff.

Part of the National Council for International Visitors, local councils put in bids to Washington DC to bring visitors to their areas.

Other Florida cities with councils include Miami, the Orlando area and Jacksonville.

According to the Web Site for the national organization: “Citizen diplomacy is the concept that, in a vibrant democracy, the individual citizen has the right—even the responsibility—to help shape foreign relations, as our members phrase it, one handshake at a time…reaching out to individuals from other countries to build bridges of mutual understanding.”

“The last group was a total of 60 from all over, but they broke them up and we had four of them,” Shurtleff said. “We take them as a group and the state department picks up the cost, except the cost of private parties that we throw for them,’’ Shurtleff said.

The local organization is different from other councils because its volunteer members actually host the visitors and often personally show them around, according to Shurtleff’s wife, also known as Lady Marie Louise Shurtleff.

“We feel like it gives them a better feel for how Americans live and it shows them the American way of life,” she said.

“Numerous Heads of State and Chiefs of Government around the world participated in the IVLP earlier in their careers. Personal friendships are made, business relationships are formed, and children learn about the world in a whole new way when they meet visitors from the other side of the globe,” according to the Web site.

The Space Coast Council of International Visitors is seeking new member interested in interacting with the foreign guests.

For more information, call 321-773-2005.