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Rural Michigan city named the ‘Nicest Place in America’ in 2020
Updated Oct 08, 2020; Posted Oct 08, 2020
four people walking across a small city street in buchanan michigan
Buchanan, Michigan has been named the "Nicest Place in America" for 2020 by Reader's Digest. (Photo by Callie Lipkin of Reader's Digest)

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By Edward Pevos | [email protected]
BUCHANAN, MI - Out of every place in the country, a small city in Michigan has just been named the “Nicest Place in America” in 2020. Reader’s Digest will feature Buchanan in its November issue of the magazine which hits newsstands on October 20th.

Buchanan, population around 4,500, is located in Berrien County in Southwest Michigan, not far from the Indiana border near South Bend. The publication selected the rural city after gathering stories from more than a thousand communities in every state where people have come together to make each other’s lives better.

“It was nominated by a man named James Van Dyke. He told a moving story," said best-selling author, journalist and Michigan native Mitch Albom who made the announcement on the Today Show. Album also was part of the “Nicest Places” Advisory Council."

Van Dyke’s story, which helped win Buchanan the designation, told how the town came together to safely honor it’s veterans as an alternative to its 150th annual Memorial Day parade.

“In small towns, Memorial Day and parades are a big deal to honor the vets. Because of Covid, they couldn’t hold the parade,” Albom said. "Instead of just giving into the disease, they got photos of all of the active military and veterans in the town, turned them into huge banners and hung them from all the lampposts. 103 banners.”

Albom says the people of Buchanan also united when the news of George Floyd’s killing broke by marching together, including with police officers, under the American flag and banners of local veterans.

“Buchanan is a midwestern town that loves its country, loves its history, loves its military and also understands racial injustice and the need for racial justice,” Albom added. "They [the people of Buchanan] personify the ability to love your country and also love all different members of the country.”

This year’s nationwide Reader’s Digest search received a record 1,177 stories of solidarity. From these submissions, Reader’s Digest editors and an advisory council, including Albom, selected the 50 honorees of Nicest Places in America, one for each state, with Buchanan being named the nicest of them all.

“This year, we received an avalanche of heartwarming stories, many of them from people uniting in their local communities to overcome the pandemic and to say ‘no more’ to racial injustice,” said Reader’s Digest Editor-in-Chief Bruce Kelley. “In Buchanan, the people did both, all under the banner of the First Amendment, the American flag and patriotism. It gives me hope for our country.”