Frank Daly loves old stuff.

“I like old things,” Daly said. “And I like sharing the history of old things with other people. Maybe then they’ll feel the same way about it.”

The retired 68-year-old who lives in North Waldoboro is one of 40 volunteer docents for the Friends of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse (FPPL). The mission of the FPPL and its crew of dedicated volunteers is to serve as stewards of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, one of the most photographed lighthouses in New England.

The lighthouse sits on pristine rocky Maine coastline, perched up high on the bedrock of Pemaquid Point with panoramic views of Muscongus Bay to the north, the Boothbay region to the south, and Monhegan Island 10 or so miles offshore.

At 10:30 a.m. on a recent Tuesday morning, the park was already teeming with visitors, making it easy to see why the lighthouse and surrounding park draws as many as 100,000 people every year. Thirty-thousand of those visitors will climb the spiral stairs of the lighthouse to the lantern deck and breathtaking view that awaits them at the top.

For Daly, the draw of the lighthouse is about more than its scenic views. It’s about honoring its history and integrity.

“Lighthouses are important to the history of the United States, important to the history of Maine,” he said. “With the lighthouse, there are a lot of stories than can be told.”

Volunteering at the lighthouse as a docent is Daly’s way of ensuring its historical and cultural preservation. “Lighthouses can’t remain there without some kind of financial support. They need to be maintained. If what I say encourages people to buy something for a donation, that’s great, that suggests to me they feel the same way about it.”

Though he speaks very highly and knowledgably of the lighthouse, Daly’s involvement as a volunteer docent is very recent. He first found out about the opportunity a few months ago when he saw an article in the newspaper about how the FPPL was looking for docents for the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse tower.

“I made a call, spoke with Melanie Howe (secretary for the FPPL), and went out to the lighthouse a couple of times when the other docents were doing their thing.” He laughed. “And then I got signed up.”

He started off his training by shadowing two other docents. He’ll be at the lighthouse from 2 to 5 p.m., every other Saturday afternoon for the rest of the summer, until the lighthouse tower closes to the public after Columbus Day.

Daly sees his role as a lighthouse docent as an opportunity to learn something new. He is particularly interested in Colonial era American history, so he was excited to learn that it was John Quincy Adams, our nation’s sixth president, who commissioned the construction of the lighthouse in 1827.

While visitors wait in line to go to the top of the tower, he makes sure to ask if they’re interested in learning about the lighthouse. And he finds that most of them say yes.

“Lighthouses are a part of our history,” he said. “And it’s important to keep that history alive.”

He said he sees his duty as a docent to be twofold: to make sure that visitors have an enjoyable time at the lighthouse and maybe learn something about it, but also to make sure their visit is a safe one. He makes sure to tell each and every visitor to the lighthouse what they’re about to encounter: 31 triangular-shaped steps that make up the spiral staircase, followed by a ladder at the very top with eight more steps.

When asked about the types of people he’s met so far as a docent, he said it’s been a mixture of families on vacation from Maine and other states, as well as people from as far away as Germany, Austria and Australia.

“For me, volunteering is about interacting with people,” he said. “I like history, but I love meeting people from away.”

That sentiment is echoed by Matt Filler, another docent who has been volunteering for the FPPL since its very beginning in 2002.

“It’s a fun thing to do every other week,” Filler said. “I have no particular love for lighthouses, although I do love history. I think the biggest thing is just talking to all the interesting people you meet. That’s the most fun.”

Filler retired 12 years ago with his wife after a career in food science. He lives in Walpole now. The thing that brings him back to the lighthouse as a docent year after year is getting to chat with such an array of interesting people.

“They really do come from all over the world,” he says. “It’s amazing.” He tells the story of how he once met two separate couples visiting the lighthouse from Israel. “How’d you both pick the Pemaquid Lighthouse to visit?” he asked the second couple. And they joked, “We must have both gone to the same travel agent.”

That’s something the volunteers at the lighthouse seem to have in common, not only a desire to serve their community, but a desire to use and nourish their own particular passions.

“I couldn’t be a docent in an art museum like the Farnsworth,” Frank Daly said. “Maybe my wife, she’s more the artist type. But here, I like history, I feel like I have a lot of enthusiasm and my enthusiasm spills over.”

Marty Welt has been president of the FPPL since 2005. He believes that an enthusiastic docent is also one who adds value to his or her visitors’ experiences. And he believes that a richer experience will ultimately make those visitors more willing to contribute with a donation. He was excited to add both Frank Daly and Court Dwyer to his list of docents this summer. He said that one of the biggest challenges facing the FPPL today is recruiting and keeping volunteer docents. Without them, the lighthouse tower would not be open to the public.

Though the Lighthouse Park at Pemaquid Point is owned and operated by the town of Bristol, the lighthouse tower itself is actually owned by the U.S. Coast Guard. They struck a no-cost, 20 year lease with the ALF back in 2000 that allowed the ALF to manage the lighthouse tower, so long as it was kept open to the public, kept safe, and restored. What most people don’t realize is that the two dollars they’re paying at the gate does not go towards maintaining the lighthouse tower.

And while admission to the top of the tower costs nothing, donations are needed to help pay for restorations. “Nobody is getting paid here,” Welt said of the FPPL. “All donation money is intended to go towards restorations.”

Welt said his favorite thing about the lighthouse and about being president of the FPPL is the volunteers. “They’re a great group of people, so dedicated. They just make it happen.”

The Pemaquid Point Lighthouse tower is open to the public from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week from mid-May through Columbus Day, thanks entirely to the dedication of its volunteers. For more information, visit www.lighthousefoundation.org.