Happy First Birthday Farmingdale Patch!

One year ago today, .

Since it was the , I had a pretty clear sense of what I was in for- the great people I would meet and interesting topics I would cover. Even still, every day to be able to cover the schools, businesses, government and nonprofits that make this active community so unique.

In the year since we launched, we've published more than 2,500 articles, in addition to a section of blog posts, a full calendar of events and roundup of local announcements.

I could easily write a very nostalgic recap of the year and the Farmingdale stories we've gotten to tell during it. But the week after Christmas we'll be running our full Year in Review series, which will do just that.

So instead, I will hope you will take the site's birthday to celebrate the ways you can use Patch as a resource every day:

Sign up for Newsletters: Get Farmingdale-specific news delivered right to your inbox every morning or once a week. The site is updated multiple times each day, so news is always fresh.

Post Events to the Calendar: Get the word out about your events by adding them to the calendar. Or use the calendar to browse what's going on around town.

Become a Blogger: Farmingdale experts in their fields blog every week on the site. Have a subject area of expertise? Email amandaf@patch.com to become a local voice on the site.

Rate Local Places in the Directory: The Places tab of the site features every business, school and organization in town. Use the section to find phone numbers, addresses, hours or to rate your experience there.

Track Traffic Jams and Gas Prices: This newly-added tab features a live traffic map of how traffic is flowing in Farmingdale. There's also a live listing of the least expensive gas available in the area.

Make Announcements: Need volunteers? Get married? Lose a pet? Announce it in our announcements section so the community knows. 

Add Photos to the Community Gallery: We're always taking photos around Farmingdale at events, but we want to see your best shots too. Add them to this gallery so your neighbors can see. You can also add photos to articles by clicking "Upload" near the photos we've featured.

We love discussion and smart debate and our articles are a great place for the community to do so about meetings you may have missed, new initiatives, school accomplishments, vacant properties and more.

Follow us on Social Media: We tweet all day long @DalerPatch and have more than 500 likes on our Facebook page. Make sure to follow us on those platforms.

And don't forget: Enter your home in our holiday contest for a chance to win $100,000 for Farmingdale schools.

Farmingdale Patch would not be possible without the guidance of Regional Editor Jason Molinet, Associate Regional Editor Pam Robinson, Senior Regional Editor David Reich-Hale and the work of Advertising Manager Maria Manaseri, Calendar Editor Monica Grossman and all of our contributors.

What would you like to see on the site during our second year? Tell us in the comments.