I can barely believe that a year ago today I watched as Natick Patch went live Online for the very first time. Months of preparation went into our launch on Dec. 15, 2010, between training, creating our directory of places in town, working on stories, getting to know as many people in town as we could and creating our (incredibly embarrassing) Welcome to Natick Patch video. A year ago you may never have heard of Patch —you may not have stumbled upon our site until a few months ago or this letter may be the first thing you've ever read on our site and that's okay. No matter when you discovered…

As a part of a company-wide initiative to give back to our communities known as "Give 5 Day", the almost 800 Patch editors across the country spent a few hours volunteering on Thursday.  Having spoken to A Place to Turn director Joanne Barry back in January when I wrote an article about the food pantry's new healthier eating initiative, the organization immediately came to mind when considering where to volunteer in town. The pantry, tucked beside the Hartford Street Presbyterian Church, is a cape-style house converted into storage for the many donations they receive. The shelves are stocked …