Letter From the Editor: Join Our Community Conversation

The school year may be winding down and spring is still taking its own sweet time about getting here, but there are a lot of exciting things going on at Fairlawn-Bath Patch. 

• As you have probably noticed, all Patch sites now include blogs on our page. In just over two weeks more than 4,000 bloggers have joined the conversation in their communities at more than 800 Patch sites across the country -- including ours. If you haven't already, check out Paula Singleton’s take on new styles for summer weddings. Adam Marquette shares his views on family life and faith.

If you’re thinking about becoming a Patch blogger, we’re still looking and would love to talk with you. The topics for potential blogs are wide open.  Are you an expert in your field, a student with something to say about school life in Fairlawn or Bath, a local artist, musician, photographer, a book club leader, a movie buff or theatre fan? You can have your say on a patch blog, share your ideas with neighbors and avoid the obscurity of those big blogging sites.

Interested? I can’t wait to hear what you have to say. Send me an email with the word “blogger” in the subject line and we’ll talk about the details. 

• For many of us, late spring also means graduation time is near. At Patch we hope you’ll share that milestone with your friends and relatives with a .

Whether it's your preschooler moving on to kindergarten, a high schooler heading for college or your undergrad getting his or her degree, it’s easy to celebrate it on Patch. 

First, make sure you are a registered user of your Fairlawn-Bath Patch (if you aren't, click on Sign Up in the top right corner of the home page). Once you are logged in, scroll to the bottom of the home page and under Contribute on the right side, click "Announce something to everyone." 

In the announcement template, fill out all the fields, and make sure you choose Graduation as the category. When you are done, you can add photos and video of your graduate to make it really special. 

Then scroll to the bottom and click "Post my announcement." Send the link to all your friends and family so they can share in your proud moment.

The same process works to post events, garage sales and thank yous. Like blogging, it's another way we at Patch hope to fulfill our goal of not just reporting to you, but providing a platform for a community conversation with you.

• And, of course, the news is a vital part of the Patch mission.

The quickest, easiest way to keep up with what’s happening locally is to sign up for the Fairlawn-Bath newsletter. To subscribe, click the bright green rectangle at the top of the page, cleverly titled “Get the Patch newsletter.”

Enter your email address and the headlines will start coming to your inbox each day -- free of charge. And don’t worry, we only send one e-mail a day, and we promise that we won't try to sell you anything or sell your e-mail or information to anyone else.

If you sign up between now and 9 p.m. Friday you’ll also be entered into a drawing for a $50 Earth Fare gift card.

The winner will be chosen at random from the subscriber list and announced on the site Saturday, May 21.

We hope these features make Fairlawn-Bath Patch an even more indispensable part of your day.  As always, give a holler if you have any comments or suggestions. 

Kymberli Hagelberg

Editor, Fairlawn-Bath Patch