WELCOME BACK: Greensboro wants folks to return home.

• Author: Bustamente, Cassie

In 2021, Action Greensboro launched Boomerang Greensboro, a program that has helped more than 200 people return to the city that had once been their home. The initiative is filling the Gate City with community members who can help it prosper creatively and economically.

"Greensboro's a small enough town that you run into people you've helped make those connections," says Cecelia Thompson, executive director of Action Greensboro. "To see them settled, happy and thriving in Greensboro, that's the goal."

Cassie Bustamente, managing editor of O. Henry magazine, talked with four "boomerangs" about what lured them back and their hopes and dreams. 0.Henry is a sister publication of Business North Carolina.

APRIL ALBRITTON

The assistant to Greensboro's city manager has big ambitions for her favorite city.

April Albritton stepped onto UNC Greensboro's campus as a prospective student and suddenly understood what love at first sight was all about. After growing up in Charlotte, she knew the lush campus, friendly students and accepting faculty would make her feel at home for the next four years. Upon graduating in 2006, this young professional craved change and cultivated a career in college athletics that would take her all over the country. But three years ago, Albritton returned to Greensboro to plant roots without letting go of her sense of adventure.

As a UNCG undergraduate, Albritton managed the men's basketball team for three years while studying kinesiology. She doesn't consider herself an athlete, but loves that sports bring people together no matter their socioeconomic background. The team became her second family and some of the players remain her best friends today.

When an opportunity to be assistant director in a Seattle university athletic department came her way she took the leap. That "rainy and gloomy" city left an imprint on her heart, but she eventually left for a job in Charleston, South Carolina, followed by Long Island, New York.

When her dad got sick, Albritton moved back to Charlotte, which led her to a fundraising position for a Carolina Panthers player's nonprofit.

Four years after her return to North Carolina, UNCG called and offered her a sports marketing position. "I absolutely wanted a chance to go back to the place I love that started everything in my life."

Shortly after her return, she bought her first home, citing Greensboro's housing affordability. "I'm making a commitment to stay down South, to stay in North Carolina," she says. After two years as director of Spartan Club, Albritton took the position of assistant to Greensboro City Manager Taiwo Jaiyeoba (TY-woh JAH-ye-aw-bah)...