One of our newspaper’s largest projects of the year will come to readers on Sunday.

The Tribune’s annual Progress edition is a compilation of about four months of work out of the year — whether it’s brainstorming, writing stories, selling advertisements or designing pages —  and we’re excited for you to see it. All that’s left is for the carriers to deliver it to your doorstep.

This year’s theme is Community Passion, and we interviewed dozens of people who are excited to live in the Albert Lea area and who are making a difference in their sphere of influence.

In today’s age of technology, many people could choose to live anywhere across the country, yet they choose to live in Albert Lea. We found some who have lived here for a short time and others for longer. We have been astounded to hear the stories of the people in our community and to hear of their optimism for the future of our city and county.

Whether it is a strong business person, a stay-at-home mother or the leader of an area nonprofit, all of these people have a similar goal in mind and that is to help Albert Lea and Freeborn County succeed. We have been inspired telling their stories, and we hope you are inspired by reading them.

We look forward to hearing your feedback about this section, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we have putting it together.