Welcome to Holliston-Hopkinton Patch

Welcome Holliston and Hopkinton alike,

I’m Sean O’Donnell, for those of you who don’t know me, I’ve been the Editor of Hopkinton Patch for eight months and I'm now the editor of Holliston-Hopkinton Patch.

I’ve grown to know the town and the players in Hopkinton well and I look forward to doing the same in Holliston.

It's obvious to me that the two towns have many similarities; each has a population of around 15,000 people and both have similarities at the local and state government levels. Each town is dealing with the impact of a large suburban population traveling through older town centers and each town has a great high school sports program.

What I look forward to is discovering what makes the towns different. My goal isn’t to blur the lines between the two towns but to celebrate and accentuate what makes them unique. As Vanzetta Evans pointed out on Holliston Patch’s Facebook “Of course [the merger] will do nothing to eliminate the confusion between the two towns. My favorite question I get when I say I'm from Holliston... ‘Isn't that where the marathon starts?’”

Don’t worry, you know the difference and I know the difference (trust me, I spent 6+ hours at the start of the marathon), and hopefully we can help outsiders and newcomers learn the difference too.

As kid who grew up in and graduated high school from Medway, I love when I get the opportunity to learn something about the area; as a reporter I love when I get to share that information with others who may or may not have known it.

I look forward to working with everyone in both towns to bring the best and most important news to you as it happens and I can’t wait to learn and grow as a part of both communities.

There will surely come a point where things will get confusing (I’m already trying to figure out the best way to do 5 Things) and I’d appreciate any feedback or ideas you have; after all, the point of Patch is to make your lives ridiculously easy.

Please reach out to me at any time through email (sean.odonnell@patch.com) or to my cell phone with a call or text (508 264 5753) if you have questions, concerns, ideas or just want to say hello.

Sean