#OurAlbion

So what are you involved with within the community?”

         “Well I have been involved with the community forever. And I won’t have it any other way. So, right now I am, we’re at the Forks Center right now, and this is my second time around being on the board of directors for the Forks Center. I am also on the board of directors for Albion United Way, for the Albion Health Alliance, for, well I’m not on the board but a part of the community leadership group under the direction of Harry Bonner. I am also, I am on the committee, the commission, for senior housing, which we’re trying to find ways to keep seniors in Albion and provide them with someplace to live that is comfortable and easy to maintain”

“So, what is Albion to you? Are there specific people, feelings, locations? Just what makes it?”

          “Okay, I told you when I first got here, one year and then I’m out of here because of the snow. I just could not take it. But I’ll tell you what, the people in this town really made a difference for me. I came here first time away from home, for a long time cause I’m a new graduate from Grambling, came from a small Louisiana town, didn’t know much about outside areas, didn’t travel very much because I came from a single mom with three kids and she worked her butt off to get us someplace. So, I hadn’t had many other experiences. I came with two other ladies right out of Grambling. We were recruited to come up and integrate schools. Because we needed Black teachers there. There were several of us that came in that era. But that particular time I came with two other ladies, and we were assigned to three different schools. We lived together, but I tell you the relationships I started building that first year. Even my principal was just wonderful. She would bring me to her house, and helped me to do canned goods cause I had no clue how to can anything. But the relationships were just fantastic and I had adoptive families. The Brewers, and the Dunklins, and I can just go on and on. People who took me in, who took my kids in, who accepted us and thought okay you’re a part of us. That was fantastic.

         And then the church. I have been a member of the same church here in town forever. And all of those church people were just amazing. So, I call this home even though my real home is of course Louisiana, and will always be. But this is home to me and at this point, well a long time ago I decided I wasn’t going anywhere, but with two daughters, we raised two daughters here and they are doing their thing and I am still here. I go to visit but I am still here. So, specific places, the Forks Center, the churches, the schools for sure. I still go out to Harrington every once in a while because it’s school, that’s my, that’s my background, school. So, yep. And then all of the activities my kids have been in have been just wonderful. From Coach Porter teaching my kids how to swim and getting Alaya and Lavell into the breaststroke deal, and they excel there. To the cheer program that helped develop my girls and Alycia is still coaching because of that. Mary Ann’s program was just phenomenal. So, it’s just been across the board lots of wonderful wonderful people in Albion that have encouraged me. And I am still here being encouraged"

“So you kind of addressed it, but I want to ask anyway. Would you consider Albion to be your home and why?”

         “Definitely. Definitely my home. Like I said I don’t ever want to take anything away from my original home, my birth home. But Albion has given me so much. Even, even my profession I was able to teach in wonderful surroundings with wonderful people and then I became principal of a school and I just absolutely loved it. I love the kids. I developed wonderful relationships with the kids and with their parents. And now those parents are now the grandparents and I see kids and I don't know them and I don’t know their mommas but I know their grandparents. So, it is just, it’s home. It’s a wonderful place to live. And I’ve always said it is the best place to raise kids. It really is" 

“So what does Albion mean to you?” 

         “It means life, security, hope, bright future for my kids. It means activities that enhance the body, the whole being. It means friendships. It means religious affiliations and being able to praise the way you want. It means help when you need help. It’s lending. It just, it means a lot. It really does”

“So, we’ve really focused on all the positives and love for Albion. Now I kind of want to take a minute and think about the opposite and ask. In what ways do you think Albion could improve?”

          “Mkay, there’s always, always room for improvement in any and every thing. I think one of the things is the communication barrier. I think there needs to be an avenue for people to communicate from city council all the way down to the people who don’t get around very often or the people who think they are not as important as someone else. So we have have a lot of levels for people in Albion of people from very very well to do to people very very common people who don’t have very much. And I think the communication barrier is really deep in Albion. So we need to find a way across the board to make everyone feel like they are a part of the community. Everybody would say, I was coming back from Battle Creek, Jackson yesterday and the roads from Jackson, the highway is so much better. You know we complain and complain when we going back and forth and all of the trucks were there and the construction and we had to take the back roads but it was much much smoother and better yesterday. I had said that to the two ladies that I was with, we need to have whatever they have that left over over to Albion because our streets are a mess. And I think everybody knows that. We are hoping. My street on Orchard Drive is just horrible. I am certainly hopeful that they’ll be coming along real soon so we can improve our streets. 

         Housing I think is a problem. That is why I am on that Senior Housing Commission. I know a lot of Albion seniors have left to go to Chelsea and other places because they don’t have adequate housing or affordable housing. Then on the other hand we have houses that probably need to be taken down and houses that need to be fixed up a little bit, just to make our place more attractive. I think the school, we definitely need a new elementary school. I’m all about education. I was on the committee working on schools, trying to get us a millage so we could get new schools. But we need Harrington, we need a new school. Harrington is in a perfect location and everything, but it is outdated. So, I am hopeful that we can find another avenue and we can work a little harder to get to that point that we can give our kids getter schools. 

         There’s also I think a lot of friction or some friction in neighborhoods. And so we’ve been working with officer Kipp and the police department to see what we can do as a group of citizens to help ease that and break that barrier. I’m hopeful that that will be happening real soon”

“So last question that I have for you is to describe Albion in one word, but I would like you to say Albion is then your word”

         “Albion is home”