ABOVE: This year’s 4 Under 40 honorees, clockwise from top left: Sam Viesselman, Erica Berhow, Sam Meixell and Hayley Luther.

FAIRMONT– Four new “4 Under 40” recipients have been named. The program, now in its fourth year, aims to recognize Martin County residents that are emerging leaders in the community. This year they have been identified as Sam Viesselman, Hayley Luther, Sam Meixell and Erica Berhow.

Erik Karre, District Director for the Boy Scouts of America Twin Valley Action Council, said that they received about nine nominations for this year’s program.

“Anyone in any community can nominate someone. We take the nominations and then people in the community, including past honorees and business leaders, discuss which four they would like to honor this year,” Karre explained.

When nominating someone, the only requirement is that the recipient is between ages 18 and 40 and lives or works in Martin County.

“The thing we always struggle with is… the people being nominated don’t have a life-time resume out there. In a lot of instances, they’re doing good things in their community and in their job but maybe haven’t done a lot else yet. But that’s the point. There’s some great up-and-coming leaders in the county doing great things and we see more great things on the horizon for them,” Karre said.

He said he hopes a program like this will inspire others to continue to work on doing good things and to become more involved in the community.

“A lot of people are recognized in a community for a lifetime of service, but young people who are doing good things in a community are oftentimes overlooked. This is a great way to recognize and encourage them,” Karre said.

Sam Viesselman of Fairmont is a software engineer at Kahler Automation. Hayley Luther of Northrop is a graphic designer at AdMfg. Sam Meixell of Sherburn is the environmental health and safety manager at AGCO and Erica Berhow of Fairmont is a loan officer at Profinium Bank.

Past honorees include Benjamin Landsteiner, Kaleena Wiens, Blake Potthoff, Laura Olsen, Stephanie Busiahn, Jen Kahler, Hubble Werre, Linsey Preuss, Tonya Mortensen, Brittany Anderson, Matt Lange and Betsy Tino.

The recognition event will be held on Tuesday, March 12 in Fairmont. Tickets can soon be found online at www.twinvalleybsa.org/4under40.

Individual articles on each of the recipients can be found in the Sentinel in the weeks leading up to the event.