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To the National Honor Society students who organized a blood drive this week.

Hats off to the National Honor Society at Albert Lea High School, who on Friday hosted a blood drive at the school for students and the community.

This is a great opportunity for the students to learn leadership in planning and carrying out an event, and we hope students and community members took advantage of the opportunity to give blood and in turn help those around them.

The Honor Society also typically organizes a couple of blood drives during the school year.

To another new Little Free Library.

Freeborn County 4-H this week announced it has installed a Little Free Library on the west side of the Freeborn County courthouse.

The goal of Little Free Libraries, according to the nonprofit’s website, is to offer a book for every reader, stating that people are empowered when the opportunity to discover a personally relevant book to read is not limited by time, space or privilege.

Reading itself has many benefits, including stress reduction, stronger analytical thinking skills and even memory improvement — not to mention it can help you gain knowledge. Reading can also expand your vocabulary and improve your focus.

Just like it is important to take part in exercises such as walking and running to keep our bodies strong, reading can help keep our brains strong.

We encourage people to check this little library or one of the others in the area. There are now about a dozen in total distributed throughout the community. For a map of all the locations, visit https://littlefreelibrary.org/map/.

There can never be too many of these libraries throughout town.

To the participants of the 2024 Patriot Tour.

Hats off to those from Albert Lea who participated and helped organize the stop in Albert Lea for the 2024 Patriot Tour.

According to organizers, there were almost 100 bikes that took part in the leg of the ride that ended in Albert Lea. Once here, the riders took part in a ceremony in the North Broadway parking lot and then went inside the American Legion to enjoy a meal.

The Patriot Tour travels across all 50 states in 120 days, carrying the American flag and raising money to support families of wounded veterans.

This is a valiant effort and one that we’re sure is much-appreciated by the veterans that it supports.

We were glad to see such a good crowd — not only those who participated by bike but also those who came out to watch the riders as they came into town.

There was also some discussion that Albert Lea may be in the running to host the start of the tour next year. This would be a wonderful opportunity for the community, and we would love to see this come to fruition.