To the Lake Mills Bulldogs on their 100th win.

Not many teams can win 100 consecutive matches, but the Lake Mills volleyball team did just that Thursday night in St. Ansgar, Iowa. What is perhaps more impressive is that the coach and team members have achieved this without arrogance; they still believe they can be beat and that fuels their fire for each set. Coach Jim Boehmer even reminded the current team that former players helped start this trajectory. He’s not afraid of putting more pressure on the team and said, “That’s what life is. If they can learn to deal with pressure like this, maybe they’ll learn to deal with pressure that means something someday.” Congratulations to the team for this achievement, but also to Boehmer who wants to coach the athletes about not just sports, but life.

To domestic violence.
There’s another observance in October — Domestic Violence Awareness Month. A vigil was held Thursday in Albert Lea’s New Denmark Park to remember victims of domestic violence and to talk about how to remedy the issue. Freeborn County’s own Crime Victims Crisis Center works with more than 300 families per year, a disturbing number. The awareness month helps communities understand how they can help affected families and understand exactly what domestic violence is.

To those who celebrated Unity Day.
Though Albert Lea High School students often don blue and cherry, on Wednesday many kids wore orange in support of Unity Day. The observation is part of National Bullying Prevention Month and serves to show support to peers who are victims of bullying. Cheers to students for taking time to stop and think about bullying and its effects. Staff at the high school also took time to incorporate anti-bullying messages like preventing cyber bullying. It’s good that schools are involved in what needs to be a community-wide effort to end bullying.