Looking for a Few Good Columnists

Centreville Patch launched last Friday, and we've hit the ground running. It's been a busy week, with homecoming and district finals for several sports at Centreville High School, two public forums over a controversial plan to change school boundaries, and elections coming up next week. 

We have lots of plans in the works to make this site a better resource for our community.  If you're passionate about Centreville, there's a place for you at Patch. We have a number of contributors who write, take photographs and film video; we're looking for more. Here's some ways to participate:

Write an opinion column or a letter to the editor. Yes, an actual letter to the editor, one signed with your real name. Comments on our stories are appreciated, but letters get special notice and will be printed on the opinions page. Email mary.stachyra@patch.com with your name, phone number and address. Don't worry, we won't print that information- it's just so we can confirm it's really you writing the letter. 

We also want to expand the number of columns on the site. If there's a topic you can envision writing about a few days a week, like pets, parenting, or sports, let us know. Send your contact information along with a sample of what you might write. It doesn't have to be a topic that I've listed- just one that's interesting. 

Become our Korean correspondent. There's a lot of people in Centreville of Korean-American heritage, and not everyone's fluent in English. I don't speak Korean, so that means there's a lot of stories we're missing out on. We'd like to run a column that can appear on the site in both languages.

Send us a short story or poem. Show your creative side; every week we'll pick one to run in a new column.