Next Sunday when you pluck your Tribune out of the paper box, or scrape it up off the porch, or grab it off the rack at the grocery store, you’ll notice it’s about as thick as a week worth of regular Tribunes.

Monday, February 19, 2001

Next Sunday when you pluck your Tribune out of the paper box, or scrape it up off the porch, or grab it off the rack at the grocery store, you’ll notice it’s about as thick as a week worth of regular Tribunes.

It will be a typical Sunday paper, bursting with all the news, sports, ads and comics you’re accustomed to seeing. But we’re also going to wedge a one-pound special section in there – something we call Profile.

The Profile section has become a regular feature each winter for the Tribune, as well as for other papers its size. If you’ve been reading the Tribune long, you probably know just what Profile is about.

Profile is about good stories. We sit down every fall and brainstorm ideas that seem topical or relevant, or just plain interesting. We gather input from as many people as we can to hear what kind of stories they want to read. Then we spend the next three or four months researching, writing, and creating this gigantic section.

Profile is about our community. There’s a reason it is also known as a &uot;progress edition&uot; – it’s all about the strides our community has made and the challenges it continues to face.

And Profile is about people. Every story in the section is about us, the people who teach us, who help us, who build up our institutions and our community and who make life more interesting and enjoyable.

Some of them have big jobs and fancy titles and you’ve probably seen them quoted in the newspaper; some perform a specialized task for which unique skills are needed; some exemplify a new or special way of doing things; and some just have a story that’s funny, or exciting, or touching.

This year’s theme is &uot;Crossroads to the Future.&uot; Albert Lea and Freeborn County often note their position on a major highway crossroads. We believe the area is at another crossroads: A time in its history when things are changing, when people are adapting, when the future is set to shoot off in a direction that we can’t predict. These themes are woven throughout the stories you’ll read.

As this year’s Profile season has worn on, I’ve thought about what it means for our newspaper to put together this mammoth section every year.

It’s a lot of work; on top of the daily chores we face, we must make time to plan and put together a huge section, full of nothing but local articles and advertising. At times, it’s hard for anyone not to wonder if all the work is worth it.

Well, I say it is.

The reason: These are the stories we may otherwise not get a chance to tell. With our small staff caught up in the daily news cycle all year long, it’s hard to step back and search for interesting stories that beg to be told. We have daily deadlines, we have city council meetings, we have Lifestyles and Sports sections to fill, we have photos to take of school plays and hockey games and fires, we have editorials and columns to write. If not for this section, would we find the time or the opportunity to tell all the stories we choose for Profile? Some of them,

sure. Many of them, perhaps. But all of them? I don’t think so.

So when you sit down with next Sunday’s paper, take a good look at all six sections and 84 pages of Profile. Check out the story on Elaine Langemo and the changing NorthPark business she owns. Or the story on Jensales, a company that has reached a worldwide market from the small town of Manchester. Or the tale of the Lois Club, an organization that believes a name means a lot. Or the article and photos on the life of a small-town postmaster. Or the essays and photos of people and their favorite places. Or any of the other six dozen stories in Profile.

It’s a lot to pack into one paper. But we think it’ll provide a good Sunday afternoon of reading.

Dylan Belden is the Tribune’s managing editor. His column appears Sundays.