Homecomers: What makes Albion home?

By Maggie LaNoue – Contributing Writer

September 18, 2026

Festival of the Forks has always been partly about coming home.

People who grew up in Albion return to see family and old friends. Classmates reunite. People who moved hundreds of miles away walk Superior Street again alongside people who never left, and people who came to Albion from somewhere else and made it home.

Festival of the Forks will bring people back to downtown Albion the weekend of Sept. 19. Two weeks later, Albion College will welcome alumni back to campus for its own Homecoming weekend Oct. 3.

But what does it mean to come home to a place? What makes a place remain home after someone leaves? And how does somewhere become home to someone who wasn’t born there?

Those questions echo ideas explored for decades by Kentucky writer, farmer and poet Wendell Berry, who died Aug. 31 at age 92. Berry and his longtime friend Wes Jackson used the idea of “homecoming” for something larger than returning for a visit. They spoke of people going home, or choosing a place, and staying long enough for affection, knowledge, and responsibility toward a community to grow.

This year, those ideas have particular meaning in Albion. Festival organizers are looking back at the community’s heritage as the city asks residents to look toward its future.

Billy Beers, president and CEO of the Greater Albion Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau, told City Council Sept. 8 that organizers have been exploring Festival archives and returning to an emphasis on “celebrating Albion’s heritage.”

“It’s about our community, it’s about our people,” Beers said.

Mayor Victoria Garcia Snyder, who grew up in Albion, said one of the things she loves most about Festival weekend is “the opportunity to reconnect with friends who have moved away but still consider Albion home and come back to celebrate with us.”

The Festival will also give people a chance to help plan Albion’s future. McKenna, the city’s planning consultant, will gather public input Saturday on Superior Street between the Coca-Cola mural and the Bohm Theatre. The city’s Comprehensive Plan survey and interactive map are available at AlbionTogether.com through Oct. 31.

When Albion residents and former residents were asked on social media what makes Albion worth coming home to, their answers suggested there isn’t one kind of homecomer.

Fred Grooms grew up in Albion, graduated from Albion High School in 1978 and later served 20 years in the Air Force. He now lives in Maine. “Albion will always be my Hometown,” Grooms wrote.

Judy Winnie Henson’s family is in its seventh generation of living and raising families in Albion. “Albion is and always will be home to me,” Henson wrote. “My memories of growing up here remind me of everything good that I have experienced in life.”

Marsi Parker arrived from Austin, Texas, as a shy teenager and found herself welcomed into Albion. She graduated from Albion High School in 1969, attended Albion College, and later moved away, but continued coming back. She has attended nearly every Festival of the Forks and remembers “the fusion of cultures and the spirit of community in this wonderful town of Albion.”

Hayden Ryan moved in and out of Albion during childhood and grew up not wanting to live here again. Returning as an adult brought a different experience.

“It was odd to relearn Albion as it is now, instead of what I’ve always thought of it as,” Ryan wrote.

Ryan now values the walkable downtown, parks, library, shops, and connections with people through work. “Albion feels like home to me since it’s been my first step into adulthood,” Ryan wrote.

James Leo Oliver lived in Albion for 10 years and worked here for 25 at Starr Commonwealth. His children were born here and delivered by Dr. Cram, and he later performed with The Edge at the Bohm Theatre and Festival of the Forks.

Some of the Albion he remembers is gone. He misses Cascarelli’s, but other connections endure. After being away from Lopez Taco House for about 25 years, Oliver returned, and Danny Lopez remembered him. “I love Albion and come ‘home’ often,” Oliver wrote.

Annabelle Dean grew up in Albion and recently purchased her grandmother’s home back from Albion College. “It’s my dream to share this house with the people of Albion,” Dean wrote.

Shanell Johnson, who has lived in Albion for 47 years, wrote about the way people help one another. Pierce Kindred, a fifth-generation Albion resident who returned after eight years away, put it more vividly: “This town has people who would give you their one last shoe just so you could walk your path a little more comfortably.”

Places inevitably change. Businesses close and new ones open. Buildings disappear or take on new purposes. Institutions change. Even Festival of the Forks has adapted over the years, while people keep returning.

A hometown doesn’t remain home because everything stays the same. Perhaps it remains home because people continue making a life there, remembering what came before, recognizing one another and deciding what is worth carrying forward.

One question Berry returned to in considering communities and their futures was deceptively simple:

“What’s here that’s worth saving?”

For Berry, knowing and loving a place also brought responsibility for its care. In a town, that can mean paying attention, showing up, helping neighbors, and taking part in decisions about what comes next.

For homecomers and those already here, taking the survey is one simple way to have a voice in what comes next.

The survey ends Oct. 31, 2026. Survey link: AlbionTogether.com