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Starting Wednesday, the Albert Lea Tribune opened up the nomination round of its annual Readers’ Choice Awards contest.

This contest is an important part of what we do, and in many ways gets to the heart of a healthy community. This isn’t an agency or group recognizing a business, individual or organization through the nomination. This is the people themselves. Those people visit local businesses who are led by our neighbors and friends.

It also creates a fun kind of competition as voters, through your nominations, seek to recognize those around you.

“Competition is a great thing in our community,” Publisher Crystal Miller said. “It forces each of us to do our best and to continue to strive for excellence.”

The nomination round will go through May 15 at www.albertleatribune.com/contests, and the voting round is available online June 1 through July 6. Ballots will be available in our print publication on June 7.

One random participant name will be drawn from the nomination round and one random participant name will be drawn from the voting round to each win a one-year digital membership to the Tribune.

Winners will be announced July 26.

We urge each and every one of you to take part in this competition to recognize those who deserve to be recognized with the Readers’ Choice Award.