Patch Mayor Colleen Sullivan Strives to Keep Medfield Patch Local

Colleen Sullivan has lived in Medfield, Massachusetts, for 30 years. She grew up not far from the town, in Stoughton, Massachusetts. She began her journey with Patch in 2011 as a freelancer and stepped into the Patch Mayor role recently. She is passionate about her town, where she and husband Steve have raised three children: Michael Sullivan, Matthew Sullivan and Meaghan Sullivan. Colleen Sullivan and Steve Sullivan will celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary in June.

Q. What made you decide to be Patch Mayor in Medfield?

A. I was a freelancer in 2011. I was approached by the regional editor. He said, “I think you should be the Mayor,” she said. “You have been doing this as long as anyone as far as keeping Medfield Patch going,”

I didn’t look for it, I just found out that he wanted me to do that and I said sure ... It’s not a big change for me at all it’s just a different byline on everything I post.

Q. What are your passions as a contributor and Patch Mayor?

A. I just like Medfield Patch to be a lot of local information. My goal is, Monday through Friday anyway, for the lead story to be Medfield related. I feel like the readership in Medfield and probably most small towns - it’s called Medfield Patch for a reason - they want to see what is going on in this town.

I go to a lot of meetings, just to educate myself as to what is going on in the town. I try to just keep the town informed about what is going on.

There was a run for a little boy who has had two double lung transplants. It was a fundraiser for organ donations. His parents are big runners. The event is called Hunter’s Run. That’s so important for the town to know what is happening.

I feel like I really love this town and I really enjoy contributing to the community. I think everything I post really tries to be positive. There is controversy in things sometimes, but I try to make sure that everything I post is showing both sides. It’s just a really good town and I hope it stays that way.

Q. What do you do when you are not Patching?

A. I have like three part-time jobs. I work a small job for the school department. It’s literally an hour and a half a day. That’s driving around delivering the interoffice mail. Who would think I could take an hour and a half job and make it a career?

I also do a marketing job for a small business in town. I work out of my house for that. I’m a photographer as well. I just do a lot of volunteering for a lot of things.

I’m a Medfield Lion. I really like it because it’s a good group. We just do a lot of fundraisers and events. We are going to do an eye mobile in May.

I also serve as a library trustee.

Q. Why have you stuck with this? What is your passion?

A. I guess mine would fall more into wanting to keep Patch local. I try to be diverse in what I am posting, which is a bit of a challenge sometimes. Even though Patch allows people to post themselves, a lot of people will send things to me.

I’ll see people at something and they will say, "Oh, you’re the Patch person."

Q. What is great about Medfield?

A. That’s a toughie. Well, I want to say it is a really nice community of people helping people. That has been my impression since I moved here 30 years ago. All of my three children that are grown now went to school here.

When someone needs help in this town, it’s usually pretty quickly that someone comes and sees who needs help. Even within the town government, the school, there is a lot of involvement. A lot of community involvement and care for one another.

We do have a group in town called the neighbor brigade. I don’t know if they are just Massachusetts or not. They are an organization that has a membership of many, many people in town that gets together and says, “There is a family in town that needs a meal. You can just drop a meal at their garage with a cooler inside.”
This neighbor brigade has been doing it for a number of years.

That to me shows the real heart of the town but also, as a Medfield Lion, we do a fundraiser and the money goes to needs the neighbor brigade might have. They can recognize where the needs are and they can kind of help. The neighbor brigade is not allowed to fundraise. A lot of it is behind the scenes and good people are doing good works.

Do you wish YOU had a place to sing the praises of people and events that make your town special? Interested in becoming a Patch Mayor? If you'd like to share on your community Patch, it's easy. Find out more here and let's make you a mayor!