Merry Christmas from A Little Bit of Stone!

Well, another year has gone spinning by and here we are looking forward to another Christmas. Hope you have a wonderful time!

2012 has been a great year for A Little Bit of Stone and more and more people are visiting and getting involved.

In January, 3700 people visited the site; in November, it was 9,800. We’ve covered all facets of life in Stone this year and there have been over 1,000 stories.

We’ve covered all the festivals, the good news and the bad, taken pictures, video and audio. But two stories jump into my mind as particular favourites. The way the community rallied round to get the graffiti cleaned up that was sprayed around the town in May was just amazing. It showed everything good about Stone and the people who live here. And the way the site got involved in the clean-up and helped the police to catch the offenders was a really proud moment. Just search ‘graffiti’ to have a look at all the stories.

The second story shows just how much the site lives and breathes through its readers. You’ve been sending photos and videos and sharing your news and information all through the year, but one event in particular showed just how crucial your input is. It was the Tour of Britain cyclists zooming in and out of Stone in September.

Fourteen people sent in photos and videos and I was able to plot the cyclists’ route through the town by using them. I was at work at the day job, too, so you really came to the rescue! You can have a look at the photo album HERE

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Your photos of the recent flooding in Stone were fantastic too and brought so many new readers to the site.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the site and supported it in whatever way. A Little Bit of Stone just wouldn’t exist without you. So a huge thanks. Special thanks to my Little Bit of Stone partner Jon Cook for all his technical support, to Joshua Cope and Jack Taylor for their support and enthusiasm, and to Philip Leason and Pete Roch for their regular contributions.

Thanks also to the local businesses who advertise on the site, and to those in the Little Bit of Stone business and community directory that we launched in 2012 – you can see it HERE if you haven’t already. It’s a great resource for local businesses and residents alike.

I run A Little Bit of Stone on top of my full-time job as a local government press officer. In January, however, I start a new role managing a local community website project for Staffordshire University (these things are starting to take over my life, I tell you!). It’s a part-time role, so I’m looking to grow A Little Bit of Stone even more in 2013. We’ve got some exciting plans!

If you’d like to get involved in the site – and I’m particularly looking for writers who can come on board – then drop me a line at news@alittlebitofstone.com It would be great to hear from you!

Thanks again – and have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Jamie x