Guest Editor Takes The Helm At Kent Patch

Good day, Kent Patch readers! I’m excited to serve as guest editor for the next six weeks for my friend, Kent Patch Editor Matt Fredmonsky.

I’m among the many fans of Matt’s work at Kent Patch who are rooting for his speedy recovery from back surgery. Today is his first day of medical leave and I know he’s already anxious to get back on the job!

Matt and I have worked together for seven years: this past year at Kent Patch and, prior to that, at the Record-Courier. While our friendship was founded on respect for each other’s work, I’m still honored that Matt is saying he’ll rest easy with me filling in for him!

(A shameless request for assistance from Kent Patch’s many loyal readers will conclude this missive!)

I’m excited to spend the next six weeks covering a city I first fell in love with in 1981. I moved here permanently in 1997 so my then six-year-old son would always be able say he grew up in Kent, Ohio.

There’s so much to love about Kent: its funky/energetic vibe, its cultural and social diversity, the Cuyahoga River and the existence of another “city” within our city ().

I attended Kent State, my son, August Fagerstrom, is a full-time student there and my husband, Jona Burton, adores his main campus job in the information services department.

I’m a member of the Board of Trustees, the Kent City Schools Hall of Fame Nominating Committee and the . I can’t even count how many fascinating, wonderful people I’ve come to know through each of those groups!

My husband and I are members of and volunteers for the Golden Retrievers in Need rescue organization – and we have three delightful goldens to prove it!

I love local news and I truly enjoy telling stories – meaning I’ve been a pretty lucky reporter and editor these past 28 years! The brunt of that time was spent working at newspapers, a form of story delivery I still look forward to with my morning coffee.

But once that coffee’s gone and the newspaper is in the recycling bin, my online news addiction of several years kicks into high gear! I keep numerous area news websites open all day so I can quickly hit the reload button in search of “the freshest news.” Patch feeds that addiction!

Here’s where my shameless request for assistance comes in …

Patch loves user-generated content. Patch was designed to engage and involve the community in the news delivery process. So, please, upload your photos to the site or email them to me. Write a blog. Send me a story idea via email. Give me some feedback in the comments section.

I look forward to hearing from you over these next six weeks!