Thanks for the Memories Patch!

I'd like to think that we made a difference in our communities and made some waves in the digital publishing world.

By now you have heard all the sad tales, AOL laid off a large percentage of its patch.com editors and the future of 750 of its hyper-local news sites is up in the air. They might just become "dummy" websites with aggregated content from other sites, or maybe another grisly fate awaits them. Who knows?

This column is more of a retrospective affair- a rumination on the potential patch.com once showed, and the shambles it ended up in. Yet, out of that rubble and digital debris came some really positive outcomes: Friendships were made, co-workers collaborated, and the communities it served were all the better for it.

My first exposure to patch was in 2010 when I went on an interview and landed a spot as a writer for Glendora patch. I can still remember the thrill, excitement and promise felt being attached to something new, a groundbreaking step in journalism, a new paradigm in news delivery and story telling.

That first day sitting with my editor to be at a local Starbucks, I was hopeful that the future would promise a long love affair with this new venture. Alas, it was not to be, although I did manage to write a couple of interesting profiles, and I did spend one spring covering prep sports throughout the San Gabriel Valley, I never cracked the stratosphere of patch.com editorial, which was my ultimate goal, never visited their Beverly Hills Headquarters, never even got a green patch.com t-shirt, maybe it was for the best.

Thanks to Patch.com though, I interviewed and profiled some great athletes, I remember going to take photos at High School football fields and practices, and watching the glimmer in kids' eyes as they saw me taking photos of their games, for most probably their first exposure to media, but if they were good and lucky, hopefully not the last.

As I watched the Crosby fire consume and threaten the Glendora foothills a few weeks back, I recalled driving through its streets, up to St. Lucy's Priory High School to cover their basketball and softball games. The mirth in parents' faces, pride swelling in their teams.

While working for Citrus College's internal publications team in the Spring of 2012, I also got to blog about the educational issues plaguing the state such as tuition increases, budget cuts and teacher and staff layoffs.

For a while, Patch gave me a forum, a voice and a digital soapbox to preach to the masses, I hope that like many Patch staffers I was able to inform, to enlighten, and in a small way to contribute.

There were and still are some talented, hard working people working on this network, I hope all those who suffered the sting of the layoffs will land on their feet. God bless.