---

We have chosen two winners of our Home, Garden and Business Show drawing. Karen Eshelman of Taylors Falls and Roger Radtke of Lindstrom were the lucky winners this year. We have already entered your name in the computer and you should be receiving your papers this week. Thanks to all who signed up for our drawing and thank you to those who stopped by to visit our booth. We had a blast visiting with everyone at the Home Show.

Something a lot of people including myself do not know is that March is FoodShare Month in Minnesota.

Most people do not associate March as being a critical month for food needs, true, but it is the month that food shelves try to build up their supply for the remainder of the year. Most of the local food shelves have been depleted from the long hard winter we are completing. This means that the need is greater than ever for your donations.

It is really simple, in fact, you most likely have some groceries in your pantry that would be a perfect donation to the food shelf. The good people that run the food shelves and the many volunteers will always welcome any and all of your donations with a smile.

I know I have said it a million times, but you just never know if someday it could be your family visiting the food shelf. The way the economy is heading, there will be more of us relying on the food shelves in the future.

Thank you to everyone who has responded to our early subscription renewal. The response has been great and we really do appreciate your continued support. To all who have not taken advantage of our early renewal campaign, you may still take $1.50 off of your annual subscription by using the coupon on the top of page 2. Please clip out the coupon and mail it in along with your payment and we will get you updated in the system. Please make sure that your mailing label is attached to the coupon.

In the near future, we will be mailing our renewal notices to all who have not yet renewed. All subscription are due by May 1 of each year. If by chance your renewal notice and your payment cross in the mail, please don't worry, it takes us a short time to get caught up with all of the mailed renewals.

Considering that you can't even get a cup of coffee for less than a dollar these days, we think paying 80 cents for a newspaper loaded with local news is a pretty good deal. To top it off, when you are done reading the paper, you can use it to wash your windows, wrap presents, line bird cages or better yet, recycle it so that we can keep printing on recycled paper like we have for many many years.

The County Press is committed to making this a better newspaper than ever, and as always we welcome any and all comments. Unfortunately, we do not have the manpower to be at every event at all times and hope you understand. When we do a nice job we like to hear from you and when we don't measure up we know we will hear from you be it a phone call or a letter.

For the past 109 years, this newspaper has served the public, and I for one would like to say thank you. Thank you to our advertisers who have been so loyal and most importantly, thank you the readers.

One of my all time favorite people suffered a huge loss last week. Ken Harmon, who many of you know as one of the local Veterans who brought our wonderful Veterans Memorial to Lindstrom, lost his wife last week. Helene passed away last week after battling illness for quite some time.

Ken and Helene had moved away recently, to be closer to their kids in the Twin Cities.

Ken has played a big part in my newspaper (allbeit short) career. He has taught me many things on the professional level and as a friend. My heart goes out to Ken and his family.

---