Happy Birthday, Bethesda Patch!

A year ago today, with a lot of help from contributors and the community, I launched Bethesda Patch.

The site launched with about 13 stories, including on the newly remodeled the controversy, the embattled and the newly-opened

Since then, we’ve come a long way. If our CMS proves correct, we've posted about 1,832 articles. We’ve covered a an and a We’ve tracked schools issues including the controversial East Bethesda development projects like the new , and traffic concerns as Bethesda became home to the new

And in just a year, Bethesda has been rocked by three tragic homicides, including that of Suburban Hospital maintenance engineer American University professor , and Lululemon employee The tragedies have shocked and saddened our community, but they have also brought us closer together—as evidenced just this past weekend, when hundreds came out to participate in the

We’ve been there to cover the good news as well as the bad, and I couldn’t have done it without your help. Thanks to everyone who has submitted stories and blog posts, helped me reach a deadline by responding to my frantic calls or e-mails, submitted a news tip or interacted with the site via the comments section, Facebook or Twitter. Conversation and feedback are important parts of the site, and Bethesda Patch wouldn’t be the same without you and your contributions! 

A few shoutouts are in order:

• Thanks to columnists extraordinaire and When it comes to parenting, eating out, taking care of your dog, the Bethesda arts scene and going “green around town,” these women have been go-to sources of information for the Bethesda community.
• Thanks to all of our dedicated bloggers, including and for providing the perspective from the community on Local Voices.
• Thanks to videographer photographer and videographer/photog for their great visual work.
• Thanks to all of the community stakeholders that have been consistently helpful sources, including the fine folks of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center and the Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board, the Bethesda Urban Partnership, Bethesda Cares, the BRAC Implementation Committee, the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce and Councilman Roger Berliner’s office.
• Thanks to Patch regional editor Amy Kovac-Ashley and assistant regional editor Kathleen Bryan, who work behind the scenes to help make the site better every day.
• And of course, all of our commenters, tipsters, Twitter followers and Facebook fans. Keep the feedback coming! We want to hear from you about how we can make the site better.

Happy Birthday, Bethesda Patch!