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To the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce for bringing burn survivor and motivational speaker J.R. Martinez to town.

Thank you to the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce and Executive Director Shari Jenson, who brought New York Times best-selling author, actor and motivational speaker J.R. Martinez to Albert Lea this week for a series of events. 

We think it’s safe to say anyone who attended one of the events with Martinez walked away inspired. We appreciate his willingness to talk about difficult topics and to shine a light on mental health. 

Martinez has not faced an easy life — even from his childhood — but he has responded to some of his challenges in ways that we can all learn from. 

Thank you to the businesses who sponsored his visit, and we hope the events served as a good fundraiser for the chamber. 

To all those who have announced their candidacy for public office and all those still considering.

As each day passes, we are hearing more and more people announce their candidacy for public office. Already for local offices we have two people for school board, one person for county board and one person for Albert Lea mayor. 

The official filing period opens May 17 and runs through the end of the month for federal, state, county and city elections. We remind people that all seats are up for election on the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners and five seats are up for election on the Albert Lea City Council in wards 1, 2, 4 and 6, as well as the mayor. 

We appreciate those who will step up to consider these offices and for the time and effort that they will expend to run for office. 

While serving in public office is often a thankless job, it can also be a rewarding one. We hope to see many people step up to get involved in their local governments. 

To Albert Lea letter carriers who collect food each year for local food shelves.

Thank you to the Albert Lea Branch 718 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, along with the rural carriers, who are participating again in the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive today. 

This is the 28th year the Albert Lea branch has taken an active role in this food drive, bringing in over 300,000 pounds since it has participated. 

The letter carriers pick up nonperishable food donations left by people at their mailboxes and then bring that food to the post office to be weighed before releasing it to Albert Lea food shelves for distribution. 

We know there are many in the community who utilize the food shelves, and this food not only goes to support these individuals, but it also goes to provide some relief to the nonprofits that organize the shelves.