To local volunteers with Night to Shine.

Friday marked the second year for Night to Shine at First Lutheran Church.

The event offers a prom experience geared toward celebrating students with special needs.

Thanks to all of the people involved, from the businesses who offer their talents in hair and makeup to the dozens of high school volunteers who accompany the participants in attendance.

Night to Shine was started by the Tim Tebow Foundation, and 540 churches in 50 states and 16 countries are all participating on the same night. The event is geared toward those with special needs between 14 and 21 years old.

Guests get to a walk a red carpet with a volunteer from the high school and take part in a crowning ceremony, in addition to dancing and taking formal photos.

This is a great event for some special people in our community, and we commend those who take their time and means to make it possible.

To Grandma’s Gourmets.

Congratulations to Grandma’s Gourmets owner Kim Nelson who recently won a Good Food Award for her Bloody Pickle.

The pickle was one of 15 winners in the pickle category across the country. The Good Food Awards chooses three winners in each of five regional categories, placing an emphasis on local and sustainable food.

It has been fun to see the success of Grandma’s Gourmets the last few years, and we wish this business nothing but the best as it continues to grow in the future.

To news that the Salvation Army came up about $47,000 short from reaching its Christmas campaign goal.

While $155,000 is not a small amount of money, we were disappointed to hear that the local Salvation Army did not reach its Christmas campaign goal of $201,500.

We encourage the community to continue to support this nonprofit organization, which does much good in the area year-round. Whether it’s feeding the less fortunate, providing physical, emotional or spiritual support, or help in times of natural disasters, the Salvation Army offers services that lift the community up.

Just at Christmas, the organization gave toys to almost 800 children and gave out food baskets for 1,130 people.

Even though Christmas is past, the need is still present.

To a housing summit held this week at Wedgewood Cove Golf Club.

The housing summit Monday at Wedgewood Cove Golf Club gathered real estate agents, city leaders, developers and others into one place to talk about local housing challenges and opportunities.

Some of the overall conclusions were that there needs to be more market rate rental housing and the conditions of some of the existing apartments in Albert Lea needs to improve.

We hope the ideas exchanged and the knowledge shared leads to improvement in the community, as housing is one of Albert Lea’s biggest challenges to getting people to move here.