Marge Neal, Patch Staff

Email: marge.neal@patch.com

Phone: 410-390-2029

Hometown: Middle River, MD

Birthday: June 26

Marge grew up in eastern Baltimore County, where she fell in love with the outdoors and particularly waterfront parks. That love of nature led to a career in public recreation and parks administration. After nearly 20 years of the ball-bouncing, whistle-tooting, tree-hugging, paper-shuffling life of a recreation supervisor, she convinced a community weekly newspaper editor to hire her as a staff reporter. She spent more than eight years as a writer, photographer and associate editor for The Dundalk Eagle before moving to The Frederick News-Post in 2007. While at the FNP, Marge covered social services and then education. 

Marge has won more than 60 state, regional and national journalism awards for writing and photography, including a prestigious National Headliner Award and five National Newspaper Association awards, two of which were first-place honors for column writing.

In her spare time, she enjoys reading, photography, camping and spending time with her "kits," Sydney, 14, and Beijing, 5.