Insider Guide: Amanda Huff

Amanda Huff has a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Albion College and worked as a mentor coordinator for Americorps in her hometown of Alma straight out of college. After that she moved into healthcare marketing and is now the Marketing Specialist at Schnepp Homecare in Alma, which specializes in post-subacute rehabilitation. She works directly with admissions and patients’ families in addition to handling all of the PR and marketing.
 
With Alma College right there in town, Amanda says that there is an abundance of cultural opportunities available. The Herrick Theatre hosts a wide variety of performing arts programs throughout the year from ballet to choral concerts, Second City performers to orchestras, all open to the community.
 
But one of the biggest cultural draws every year is the Alma Highland Festival and Games held on the Alma College campus. It kicks off with a 5k run and walk and an 8 mile race. There are kids’ races, a parade, arts and crafts, highland dances, bagpiping, sheep herding, and of course the highland games like the cable toss and the hammer throw. If you are of Scottish descent and know your clan, it will most likely be represented there with a booth displaying the clan’s tartan. The entertainment tent has a variety of Celtic music, there are plenty of Scottish food vendors selling traditional items like “birdies” (meat pies) and there’s even a traditional Scottish dinner with haggis.
 
Alma definitely has strong Scottish roots year-round; one of the town’s most popular bars is Bravehearts Pub, a Scottish-themed bar with decent bar food, cheap drinks, and karaoke on Thursdays. For something a little more quick and casual, Stucchi’s inside the College Corner Coffee & Books is a popular spot not just for ice cream but also hot dogs and other lunch items.
 
Alma is a very walkable town, and the recent transformation of an old railroad line into a greenway offers mile after mile of paved hiking and biking trails through serene wooded areas.