Red Sox to Honor Pease Greeters

Here in the Portsmouth area, the Pease Greeters are pretty well known for their tireless efforts to greet thousands of soldiers at Portsmouth International Airport who are either coming home or heading overseas to serve.

But on July 30, the Portsmouth-based volunteer group will receive some recognition from the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, according to Chuck Cove, the Pease Greeters' president.

"The Pease Greeters will be honored on July 30, 2012. A crew from the Boston Red Sox’s '100  Acts of Kindness' will be at the Pease (Portsmouth) International Airport, to do a drop off and make a donation to the Greeters’ at 11:30 a.m. The Greeters will also get recognition at the 7:10 p.m. home game that evening," Cove wrote in a newsletter email to the group's members.

Cove also wrote that the Red Sox program is being done in conjunction with Fenway Park's 100th anniversary and the Red Sox want to recognize many nonprofit groups throughout New England for the work they do.

"These acts will take on a number of different forms including donations, volunteer efforts, and hosting community events. Each act will be designed to highlight organizations and causes throughout New England. Red Sox ownership, players, alumni, and staff will participate," Cove wrote in his email.

, the group has welcomed more than 200,000 soldiers onboard 425 planes and counting, according to Cove. Regardless of when these troop charter flights touch down in Portsmouth, the Pease Greeters turn out in full force with patriotic signs, cheers and applause for the military men and women who walk into the terminal.

, Cove told Portsmouth Patch the group's members have made sure that every soldier who has passed through the airport terminal knows how much their service is appreciated in the post-9/11 world.

Cove said the group actually formed in May 2005 when Bill Hopper, director of Pease Airport, learned a Department of Defense flight with 135 troops headed to the war in Iraq was making a stopover here.

Cove said Hopper contacted him and Cove then reached out to as many people as he could to make sure those soldiers were greeted properly and provided with refreshments and the support they deserve.

From there, the group's numbers continued to swell. Cove said there are 4,100 registered Pease Greeters listed on the group's website. Most of them are from the Seacoast area, but they also have some members who are from Maine, Massachusetts and Maine.

Besides American troops, the Pease Greeters have also welcome Belgian, Norwegian, Macedonian troops and soldiers from other countries that have supported the War on Terror.