Howdy, y’all!

I’m Lindsay Toler, the new editor in Mehlville-Oakville for Patch.com! I’ll be the one “replacing” Sarah Flagg, who is launching a Patch in Chicago!

I'm getting to know my new community, so forgive me as I attempt to get past the learning curve. If you have news, history or stories I should know, shoot me an email (Lindsay.Toler@patch.com) or call me (314-452-2641). Coffee's on me!

A little about me: I’m originally from Dallas, Texas, so I love hot summer weather and chili con queso. I live in south St. Louis with the boyfriend and our puppy, a schnoodlehuahua (schnauzer+poodle+chihuahua) named Persie after Robin Van Persie, the Dutch soccer player.

Here are some important things about me:

• I’ve known I wanted to be a journalist since September 11, 2001.
• I worked for the Associated Press in London, where I covered terrorism and Harry Potter.
• I covered gymnastics at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games and was the first to post a video of the Opening Ceremonies from outside the Bird’s Nest.
• I used to live in Seattle, where I worked for the Seattle Times and for a small group of weekly newspapers called the Snohomish County Tribune Newspapers.
• I’m a returned Peace Corps volunteer. I served in Moldova, in between Romania and Ukraine, and taught health to 5-11^th graders.
• I’m not very good at milking cows.
• I speak fluent Romanian, although it’s getting rusty.
• I love to volunteer, and my passion is working with victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

I moved to St. Louis in September 2011, and I stalked Patch editors until they hired me a month later. First, I was the social media reporter, scanning Facebook, Twitter, etc. for stories we could share on our 23 sites across St. Louis. Then I moved to Affton-Shrewsbury Patch, where I was working all over mid-south county telling stories, finding new bloggers, hosting networking events and doing anything else I can think of!

If you have any questions, comments or story ideas for me, I’d love to hear them.

Stay Patchy!

Lindsay