Take 2! Meet With Your Oak Forest Patch Editor (Please?)

OAK FOREST, IL — When I took back the reins of this beautiful Patch beast back in July, so many of you showed up at an Oak Forest Starbucks to meet me, share your stories, and give me news tips about what you want to read on Patch. It was truly wonderful, and I was so thrilled at how many of you took time out of your mornings to stop in and say hello (and take some of those fantastic Patch pens off my hands).

And then, a few weeks later, I went and lost the notebook I'd used to take down all your ideas, email addresses, phone numbers, suggestions. I've looked everywhere, and that thing has pretty much vanished.

Ask me how many of my notebooks from over the years I still have (almost all of them, labeled by year), and I think it'll show just how much losing this one grinds my gears.

So let's do this all again.

I want to hear it straight from you, the issues that matter to you. I'd like you to bend my ear about what's going on in your town: the good, bad, and ugly. Someone you think I should know? Tell me about 'em. Something you think I should know about? Point me in that direction.

Sure, I know how to scope out a story. I'm a news junkie with two degrees to my name. But I'm admittedly not an Oak Forest resident. As much as I'd love to know the goings-on of your hometown before they, well, go on, I don't have that same view of you peeking outside your window or stepping out your front door.

Patch was always intended to be a conversation. I'm reachable, approachable, and open to you talking my ear off (just sometimes must need to keep an eye on the clock). I'm a people-person, and man oh man, do I love to talk. But I also believe in listening, and I'll do just that if you give me a shot.

On Thursday, Sept. 8, I'm going to pull up a seat at the Oak Forest Starbucks, 15852 S. Cicero Ave., from 7 to 11 a.m. I'll be working remotely there, with a bunch of Patch goodies to give away. Pens, magnets!

So come see me. Pull up a chair. Take some pens. Let's talk about life in your town. This Patch site is meant to be yours, meant to reflect your town, its highs and lows, its people. Who better to tell me all about that, than you?

Stop on by.

See you there?

Can't make it? No problem. I'm a click away at lauren.traut@patch.com, or a call/text to (708)323-6173.