You are the hearty ones.

Most of you reading this editorial in the printed edition today are the folks who stay in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa for the winter. You didn&8217;t go south with the snowbirds. You didn&8217;t escape to some warmer climate because of the cold.

You are the residents who get your communities through the winter, whether it spending local, donating to charity drives, volunteering for good causes or simply rooting for our local student-athletes. And most of you seem to not mind the cold and the snow all that much, when it comes down to it.

Like good neighbors, you helped one another get unstuck and out of your homes. You don&8217;t let winter tame you. You tame winter.

And though March came in like a lion, as the saying tells us, it will go out like a lamb.

So pat yourself on the back. You made it. The year-round residents of southern Minnesota and northern Iowa can feel good about enjoying all four seasons. Spring will be much lovelier to the people who shoveled the snow, shivered in the sub-zero air and showed their winter stamina.