Did You Miss It? 5 Stories That Made Our Year

Even though these stories didn't make our most popular list of 2011, they were the stories that made my year. The following articles are a great representation of what makes living in La Grange and La Grange Park wonderful. They show our neighborhood's warmth and spirit as well as the diversity of our community and our resident's generosity. 

Thank you for making my experience in this community amazing this year, and thank you for reading Patch!

I was still working as the editor of Glen Ellyn Patch when the snow started to fall on Feb. 1. People talk about the incredible blizzards of the past, but I don't remember any of those—this was my first really big one. I still remember waking up the next morning and looking out my window in amazement at the sheer size of the drifts that had accumulated. Beth Palmer, the editor of La Grange Patch before me, took many of these photos and captured La Grange in all its beauty. A of mine in this series is the image of shoveled sidewalks all the way down the street by Laurie Kapugi. It's just so... neighborly!

This is yet another story from before my time in La Grange, but an excellent one that I remember reading when it first appeared on the site. La Grange Park is so cozy and idyllic it's a wonder that more Hollywood directors don't come here to shoot! I love that La Grange Park resident Bonnie Andorka took off work to watch the film crew and even brought them homemade hot chocolate. La Grange Park is just that friendly.

This has to be my favorite story of 2011 hands down. Not only were these three friends able to raise over $10,000 to fight cancer with the St. Baldrick's Foundation, but they also pulled together the La Grange community in a big way. Neighbors turned out in droves to get their heads shaved in support of a local girl diagnosed with cancer, and the business community really put the "local" in local business that day. It just proves that you can make a big difference if you put your mind to it.

After looking at the SnOMG pictures from February, it's a wonder anyone would move from Los Angeles to the Chicago area. But this couple did! The heart of this story isn't that the couple left their jobs in L.A. for new opportunities in the Midwest—it's why they chose La Grange!

The people of La Grange and La Grange Park never cease to amaze me with their generosity. What better story highlights that than residents coming together to raise money and welcome home Marine Lance Cpl. Josh Misiewicz. Together, residents have raised tens of thousands of dollars to help the Misiewicz family care for and visit their son who lost both legs and shattered both eardrums in a bombing in Afghanistan in July. This is a story that truly represents the compassion and love our community has for our neighbors.

Again, thank you for a wonderful year. I wish you all the best in 2012 and I'm so excited to continue to cover La Grange and La Grange Park. I can't wait to see what this next year will bring, and I can only hope it's more stories like these.

There were a lot of stories that could have made this list. If you've got a story that you think should have been posted here, let me know in comments!