Editor's Note: Welcome to Cranford Patch

You may have heard of our sister sites in Westfield, Scotch Plains, Summit, Millburn, Maplewood , South Orange. Like them, Cranford Patch offers services including a directory of local businesses, organizations and important places, a set of "local facts" ranging from town officials to information about recycling rules, to comprehensive event calendars and announcement pages, and constantly updated daily news about Cranford.

Here's a breakdown of what we offer:

The Directory and Local Facts

Our listings include rich information about local businesses, from hours of operation, to maps, to services, including pictures of the business. The directory has similar information about the town agencies, civic organizations, parks and schools. We strive to be the online information hub for Cranford and through our directory we hope to provide you with everything you want to know about the town. In the Local Facts section you will see valuable information from the backgrounds of important officials to assistance in navigating local government.

Events and Announcements

Our events calendar is a good way for you to find out everything that is happening in town. From club meetings to family friendly programs, we strive to have as many events as possible. While our events team does a great job, we can always use your help! You can upload events and announcements directly to Cranford Patch and we encourage you to do so. Our announcements page is a great way for you to share your important announcement with your neighbors. Did your child get an award at school or get engaged? Did you just get promoted? Do you want to thank a neighbor for helping out in a time of need? Post it on our announcements page and let all of Cranford know your news!

News

Our news pages are going to be an exciting part of our site. We will bring you updated news and features about Cranford as well as sports news everyday. Our contributors and I will be all over Cranford learning the news, covering events and getting to know you. We are a total multimedia operation and will use words, photos and videos to tell the story of Cranford. You can see some of this up and live on our site now.

People and community organizations are the lifeblood of Cranford. We want you to help make our site even better. Upload your events and announcements, tell us about the community groups you’re involved in and give us the news tips that you see around town. If you can contribute a column on a local topic, let me know. Most importantly we want to help the volunteer groups here in town. We want to publicize your news and help you recruit volunteers. Please contact me with your news and take a look at our site and learn how you can recruit volunteers from our site.

Born and raised in Fairfax, Va. I spent part of my university career creating, staffing and maintaining a community-focused daily news and media website. I graduated from George Mason University not long after and shipped straight up to New Jersey to work for the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill. Now I'm continuing my northward journey with a new job, new apartment and a new community to learn.

Help me discover the ins and outs of Cranford by ringing my cell phone (917-687-0625) or shooting me an email (whitney@patch.com).  Got a news tip? Tidbit of advice? Story to tell? Photos or videos to share? Don't be afraid to hit me up with questions, comments, concerns and any hate mail.

Whitney Rhodes
Editor of Cranford Patch