You might not know Bertha Bermudez, Gloria Ramos, Irene Langford, Loretta Chavez or Rachel Lemus, but if you’ve ever been to the St. John’s Mexican Fiesta, you likely have tasted their cooking.

The group, and their helpers, are the “Fiesta ladies,” and their handiwork has raised thousands of dollars over the past three decades for the church and its school. It’s people like Bermudez, Ramos, Langford, Chavez and Lemus that the Journal-World’s first Only in Lawrence special edition today seeks to honor. Their story is told on today’s front page.

Only in Lawrence recognizes more than 50 people who make our community a wonderful, and interesting, place to live, work, learn and recreate. The idea behind Only in Lawrence is to honor those who don’t get the headlines, but without whom Lawrence wouldn’t be the community it is.

During a public gathering in the Journal-World’s News Center Thursday night many of these people, including the Fiesta ladies, were personally thanked and recognized for their contributions to Lawrence.

We had a lot of help identifying honorees. In February, a group of community leaders met with our editors and recommended dozens of people we should consider profiling. Our reporters and editors also tapped their sources for more people to contact.

We could have filled dozens of newspaper pages today with the many names we received. It just goes to show that Lawrence is not just a community of institutions, but of proud, gracious and hard-working people who give their time and energy to make the city great.

The Only in Lawrence edition will be an annual event. Please help us get started for next year by sending us nominations of other Lawrencians we should be celebrating.

Until then, knock on your neighbor’s door and say hi, take a former teacher to lunch, buy a glass of lemonade from the kids with the stand down the street. Embrace and enjoy your community, as we do today with Only in Lawrence.