Gwen Tabb
"It’s a small community, but I’ve always said we’ve been given a lot of lemons over the years, but we tend to turn it into lemonade"
Interview
“I’ll have you state your name and your age”
“Okay, I’m Gwen Tabb, age 71”
“Alright. And then where are you from?”
“I was born and raised in Jackson, Michigan. Didn’t stray to far from home”
"So how long have you been in Albion then?”
“I moved here in 1973 after college and started teaching then”
“So, what are you involved in within the community? I know you have had a lot of involvements. But you know even recent even all the way back to when you first got here, whenever”
“Oh wow. Okay. Well recent, right now we’re at Vision of Life, and I’m on the Board of Directors here at Vision of Life, also Program Director. I have followed the vision of our founder Vera Simpson who believes that life skills should be taught. And to that end I wrote grants and had many classes, of which you were involved in, our first students. Sewing, we’re still teaching sewing. We had a sewing class last night. We teach children to sew and they leave with a pillow case and a quilt, and we’ve added in an animal. They’ll get to make a stuffed animal. And here we’ve had a garden, outside boxes, and garden cooking class, and now we own the whole block and have a large community garden. That we’re in partnership with St. James Episcopal Church and the Albion Community Garden group and that has been amazing"
"In addition, I’m a secretary at Ismon House. I’ve been on the board since, oh I don’t know how long, probably 20 years, and we’ve been working on renovating the building. It's completely done, and it’s a historical site now. It’s used for a lot of gatherings in town. I’m a, as an educator, I’m a member of Delta Kappa Gamma. I’ve been a member for over 25 years. It’s an education society of women. And, I am also the Secretary at Albion Community Gardens, which is associated with Vision of Life, down the street. A member of ELT. I’m currently on the advisory board for the de Nicola Fund. We had a large 4 million dollar benevolent gift given to the community, and I’m on the advisory board to oversee the spending and construction of projects. And I’m a member of the Albion Philanthropy Women. We’re a loosely based group but I am one of four that just keep the wheels on the train. And we’ve given away over 700 thousand dollars since 2007. I believe. Oh gosh, if I go way back, I was a campfire leader for years and on the Johnson Day Care Board, can’t remember all those things. Real active on the teacher’s association before I went to the dark side and became an administrator so I think that’s enough”
“So, you kind of talked about why you chose this location a little bit. But what does it really mean to you. What is so important about Vision of Life?”
“First it’s amazing that Vera Simpson started this, she was about, she was retired, and probably about 70 years old. And she sold, she and a few people from the neighborhood sold barbecue dinners every week to be able to purchase this building and get Ruff and Kreger to build it, who built the building. What she did was she took, when she had enough money, she would have them come and do a little bit. And she say stop I don’t have any more money. And then they’d come back and she’d get some more money. And she did that for years to finish the building. But her vision was so compelling. Life skills are not really taught in school anymore, and her vision is that everyone should have basic life skills. And so that’s part of the mission here. And I was driving by one day and bought a dinner, and she told me about what she was doing and I’ve been here ever since. And I’ve had the skills to be able to write the grants through my job in the school system. And I’ve had the connections in the community to be able to gather more people to come in and help. And it was just, it just turned out to be a very fulfilling thing. And watching our students grow, you yourself, being here, its just amazing. I think the impact that Vision of Life has had on a lot of young lives, and I’m proud to be a part of that”
“So, kind of flipping more to about Albion in general. What is Albion to you? Are there people, feelings, locations, anything that really resonates with you for Albion”
“Yeah, Albion, Albion really is a special place. It’s a small community, but I’ve always said we’ve been given a lot of lemons over the years but we tend to turn it into lemonade. And a couple of things that I specifically thought about. I had a group of young people in town that we called young entrepreneurs. And what happened was I learned to make this amazing body lotion, and I thought well what can I do with that. And I thought, well I don’t want to start a business, I thought well I’ll teach kids how to start a business. So I gathered, I went to people, where can I get some kids that might be interested in doing this. So there’s someone in the community I could go to and they immediately got behind my idea. And I wrote a grant got the kids and next thing know we’re selling body butter. And we called it NUO, natural unisex oils, was the acronym. And one of the young ladies still continues today. But I taught them the basics on that.
But something like that could happen, in a community like this because when you have an idea people will get behind you and help you do that. And I think that really speaks to me. And I know that we leave in the winter and go to Florida. And I had, we were part of the Boobie Brigade cause one of our book club members had passed away from Breast cancer so we decided to raise money for the American Cancer Society. And we were brainstorming ideas and I said we’ll let’s do Men Who Cook and I explained what it was. And they said well where will we get the people? And I said well we’ll just talk, oh we would never get men to cook. And I thought about the difference about where I was where a lot of people don’t know their neighbors, and it’s not a tight knit community, where I couldn’t get an idea like that off the ground there but here I could very easily because people gravitate to do positive things, and I like that"
“So, all the questions kind of go together, hand in hand, but I’m trying to see if there are differences when you ask a slightly different question, or not, it might be a similar answer. To go along with that, what does Albion mean to you?”
“Well, Albion has afforded me a lot of great opportunities. I’ve been very successful here. Housing is cheaper here than it is in other places. Certainly I couldn't afford the land and home we have if we lived in another community. Our girls got a great education here and have gone on to be successful contributing adults in other communities. And it’s funny, growing up my parents would visit Albion and I would think ugh Albion. And then I moved here and have been here almost 50 years. And I can’t imagine living, I love my winters away but it makes me appreciate Albion more when I come back because the big city has a lot of things to offer in terms of entertainment, shopping, restaurants, those kinds of things but when you get to the relationships, it's not the same at all. And I enjoy that coming back and getting involved in things. I don’t want to lead anyone anywhere anymore but I do like being involved in things. So, that hopefully answers the question”
“So, would you consider Albion to be your home and why?”
“Yes, definitely is my home. Like I said we leave in the winter for 5-6 months but that is temporary, this is home. I don’t have family here but I have so many friends and acquaintances that are like family. And if we need anything it’s here, we can find it, someone’s willing to help. So yep, I consider this home. Probably for the relationships”
“So to kind of flip the script now, we’ve talked about all these good things about Albion, what you love about Albion, how do you think Albion could improve?”
“We need a clean reasonably priced grocery store. Definitely. The Mercantile has helped that’s a great store, I enjoy going there. But we need, I look at seniors that shop there and their prices are just outrageous. And I mean I’m a senior but seniors that don’t have transportation to travel anywhere else. Competition will drive the price down. So, and I want it clean. That probably bothers me more than anything. The other thing that Albion needs is more housing. We’re losing a lot of seniors because they are ready to downsize and most of the homes here are two stories. Seniors need one story homes. So we really need more housing that offers one level. And then a clothing store would be nice. More retail businesses”
“So to kind of wrap up everything. I’m going to ask you to describe Albion in one word, and say Albion is blank”
“Community. Albion is community, let me say that again, Albion is community, and I’m going to add, I know you said one word, but I just finished one of "Harry Bosch"’s books by Michael Connelly, and this stuck with me when preparing for this interview, and it’s, everyone counts or nobody counts. I like that”