By Sylvia Benavidez
Cleaning up the city before the Festival of the Forks has been a tradition in Albion. When former Mayor Dave Atchison was in office, he held a mayor sponsored Community Clean-up Day and college students played a vital role in helping Albion shine. The One Albion event did more than just clean the streets and other service projects. It also built bridges of understanding between students and the community.
Albion College students continued the tradition of a community service day and invited the community to join them last year in making the city beautiful with the Center for Sustainability and the Environment and again this year with the Albion Community Day 2024 theme of One Albion on Saturday, Sept. 7. The event lasted from 9 a.m. to noon with the first 100 people receiving T-shirts, and volunteers ended the day with lunch at the Ludington Center.
Cooperation between the City of Albion and Albion College’s Center for Sustainability and the Environment, AmeriCorps made the event possible. The morning began with volunteers meeting at Ludington. and signing up for various projects around Albion. Monica Day, Center for Sustainability and the Environment Director at Albion College shared that this was their second year hosting the clean-up effort and credited CSE Faculty Advisor Thom Wilch and CSE Coordinator Ashlyn Reed for their hard work organizing this year’s 13 project event and working with the city to determine the best projects that could be in finished in a morning. Day said over a hundred people participated with a dozen community members joining them this year.
Team leads went with each group. “There were several painting projects that the city had requested, and we organized with the city, and then (there were) street clean-ups, (work at) the community garden, (the) packing boxes for the Community Table,” said Day. There were park and trail clean ups, too, including Holland Park and the River Walk Trail.
The work the groups did was not unnoticed in the community. Painting happened at Victory Park, Harris Field and Riverside Cemetery. Madilyn Archambeau, Albion College, is from Rossford, Ohio, and has been studying at Albion College for five years. She and several other students worked on painting Riverside Cemetery’s white letters that are in grass on a hill. The assignment was perfect for her and combined her interests. “I enjoy painting and the scenery. It’s so pretty out here and I know the community values this place as well, so this is another way to help.”
Long-time resident, 96-year-old Navy veteran Paul Newman, drove up with his car to talk with Archambeau. “I had to thank you,” he said. “I have brothers buried here, sisters buried here, my mother and dad, my wife. I would just like them to be in a prettier place. Not that it is ugly. I can see the improvements in the last two years.” He went on to tell her what they did made a difference and that to him, “I think Albion is an undiscovered jewel.”
Others in the community didn’t know what was going on but were inspired at the thought of a community day. New Albion resident, Rahje Goble from Tennessee, has family in the city and hopes to become a real estate agent. He was encouraged that his new community has opportunities for future involvement. He said, “I had no idea. I would have most likely participated.”
Albion College sophomore, Galileo Dennis, has lived in Albion for three years. He was born in Oregon, grew up in Washington state, and is a part of the AmeriCorps team and helped out in the Albion Community Gardens. “I have been seeing a lot being put into the city which I really appreciate. Other places I have lived I have seen it decay and not be revived as much as Albion has been trying to,” he said. “Hopefully, I can inspire other people as the town has inspired me.”
Trisha Franzen, Albion Community Gardens Board member and an Albion College professor said, “We never have enough people to do everything we start doing out here. Particularly once the interns are done in the summer, things tend to get a little away from us. And it’s getting time for fall planting and fall clean-up and so the students have been wonderful to come out and help.”
Members of Citizens to Beauty Albion worked on some of their gardens such as Weatherford , Washington, and Molder Parks. Juanita Solis-Kidder and the CBA unofficially adopted the college students who helped in their group with the gardens and hopes to have them over for a dinner in the near future and learn more about them. “We are getting older, and we need those young people doing that type of work,” she said.
Albion College Student Shivika is from Kathmandu, Nepal. “I love it here,” she said. “I love gardening today because there is a lot of greenery back home and it helps me connect back with nature and remember all of those times.”
Coming to the City of Albion and Albion College gave Shivika a new perspective. “The people are so nice. I have always heard that people from the western side of the world are meaner, like you’re American and everything, but when I came here everyone was so nice.”
Albion College student Sam Helmbreck grew up in Albion and Concord. He said an event like this helps people express their love for their community. “I think the people who live in Albion, love Albion. I know I do. I think a project like this helps as well too.”
While at the lunch, Albion resident Kay Knight shared, “The best part of it today was chatting with the college students.”
