Community Corner

Four Months in Farmingdale

Farmingdale Patch launched back in December.

It has been four months since Farmingdale Patch back in December and, even though I have lived in the area for most of my life, it wasn't until I started covering the community that I realized just how incredibly active and close-knit it was.

Since launching, we've posted more than 600 articles about Farmingdale, which have included of the , coverage of and , reports on and they've , articles about , , and at Farmingdale State, from the Board of Education meetings, of the strong Dalers , stories on the and , on   local and numbers and much, much more, in addition to weekly , and news reports.

Farmingdale is a unique area to cover because it is made up of many municipalities. It is situated in both Nassau and Suffolk counties. (For those that are wondering this is why every weekend we run both Nassau and Suffolk County Notebooks.) The Village of Farmingdale and some other areas are part of the and other parts are in the . It is home to three fire departments - Village of Farmingdale, East Farmingdale and South Farmingdale - and falls in multiple police precincts.

Find out what's happening in Farmingdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

And despite all of this fragmented "geography," Farmingdale maintains united as a community. The unity was extremely evident as last week's Community Breakfast at Farmingdale High School, where local professionals spent the morning with high school students interested in their field.

We got to speak with impressive students interested in writing, videography, design and marketing, and some of them may even start contributing to the site soon.

Find out what's happening in Farmingdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Farmingdale Patch is one of 41 sites on Long Island and nearly 800 across the country. Patch was founded in February of 2008 and the first Patch sites launched simultaneously in Maplewood, South Orange and Millburn-Short Hills, NJ, in February 2009.

The company was acquired by AOL in June 2009 and we’re now in 18 states and hundreds of communities.

At Patch, we believe that being part of a community means giving back to it. In addition to devoting editorial coverage to local charities, as well as an entire channel of Patch to volunteer opportunities, the company sponsors a "Give 5" program.

Through the "Give 5" program, all Patch editors spend five working days each year volunteering in their communities and Patch gives five percent of its advertising space, free of charge, to local charities.

In Farmingdale, I spend a few hours each week volunteering at the . There are no words to describe the generosity in terms of of time and donations I have seen there since starting. I look forward to continuing working there and hope this site can contribute to the community in its own way.

At the Community Breakfast last week, Assistant Superintendent Ellen Krammer, who is retiring this year, encouraged the students to a pursue what they love, because then it will never feel like work.

I couldn't agree more.


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