Happy First Patchiversary Manassas Park!

Nov. 30 marked one year since the Manassas Park Patch site went live.

I’ve spent the past several weeks thinking about the Patchiversary and all that’s happened over the course of one year.

 I remember my first months in Manassas Park like it all happened last week.

My mind’s eye sees Nov. 7, 2010, the day I backed my car, loaded with the rest of my worldly possessions, out of my parents' garage for the last time and made the six-hour drive to Manassas Park.

 My folks were happy for me, but were sadden because their youngest daughter, was moving far away.  I don’t think my father even believed I was actually gone for good— after all I was 26 and this was my third time supposedly leaving the nest.

 All my furnishings were delivered to my one-bedroom apartment in City Center the week before, so the only thing missing from my new home were a few personal items and, of course, me.

But it would be another three days before I spent my first night in Manassas Park; I had to attend two days of Patch training in New York and my flight from Dulles Airport to LaGuardia departed just a few hours after I arrived in Virginia.

 I was left with just enough time to unload the car and struggle up the elevator in my building before I was off again. By midnight, I'd collapsed into my bed at the Affinia 50 hotel in midtown Manhattan; my head filled to the brim with exciting thoughts of my new life.

That Wednesday I arrived back in Virginia and my boss called to tell me I had three weeks until my site went live.

 I welcomed the challenge, but I can’t tell you how difficult it is to move to a new place and work remotely for a relatively unknown, upstart media company like Patch.

I spent most of my time explaining to local business owners, city and school officials who the heck I was and who I worked for.

Like the city attorney Dean Crowhurst once said to me, “It’s like you fell out of the sky one day.”

 Yes Dean, I, too, felt like I’d fallen out of the ether.

I made it to the Nov. 30 P-Day. It was jammed packed with news. It was the day Manassas Park Elementary School officially received its . It was also the day the school division bid then-superintendent Dr. Thomas DeBolt farewell and named the middle school auditorium in his honor.

 One word sums up my feelings during the Patch launching: Trepidation.

But over the past year, with the help of many people, that’s turned into intrepidity.

 There have been so many who have welcomed Patch and me as its editor, with open arms.

And for that I am so very appreciative.

 I feel that God had a hand in placing me in Manassas Park and I am so very thankful for the people I’ve met this year.

 I can’t give specifics on our readership, but I can say the Manassas Park Patch is doing very well.

But I don’t need analytics and numbers to tell me Manassas Park residents have embraced Patch; I hear it all the time when people approach me and thank me for covering the news.  I was at the career fair at Manassas Park Middle School a few weeks ago and even many of the young people knew about Patch. 

It’s makes me happy to receive commendation, but it also reminds me of the weighty journalistic responsibility I have: To provide accurate, timely and compelling news pieces about the community to residents.

On that note, here is a list of the top 10 most memorable Patch pieces in the last year.

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7. Students Remember Morales as Most Adorable Girl

8. Final Tribute: Katherine Morales

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10. Shirl's Girls Hold Boobie-Que For Cancer Awareness