A former Saturday Night Live cast member visited a small town in northern Iowa this week, encouraging young people in the audience to pursue opportunities at home.

Gary Kroeger grew up in Cedar Falls and has moved back home.

“You know we don’t have the Louvre, we don’t have the Eiffel Tower, we don’t have Broadway, but what we do have are opportunities,” Kroeger says, “a good economy, good hardworking people, communities that allow you to do things.”

Kroeger joined Saturday Night Live in 1982 and was best known for portraying Walter Mondale. He left the show in 1985 and has appeared in a handful of movies and television productions. 

He spoke Wednesday morning in Whittemore at the Kossuth County “County Wide Breakfast.” Kroeger currently works as creative director for a Cedar Falls-based advertising agency.

(Reporting by Joe Hall-Reppen, KLGA, Algona)