Announcing Our New Series: Dispatches

What’s your definition of the American Dream?

It’s a phrase we’ve heard all our lives but with the world changing in new ways every day it means something far different now than it once did. Each day, we’re seeing stories of families and businesses just trying to cope through unemployment, foreclosures, debt and the ever-shifting economic landscape.

And yet, right here in the Fox Valley, we see stories of people launching , or coming up with that makes their business succeed. We see people taking these trying times as an opportunity to get more involved, not less.

Is there an American Dream? If there is, it’s made up of millions of individual dreams. And that’s the premise behind Patch’s new series. It’s called "Dispatches: The Changing American Dream," and that shiny logo over there is basically our way of highlighting stories we feel help shape and define how we see America now.

Essentially, it’s local stories that speak to where we are as a nation. And Patch as a whole—all nearly 900 of our sites—will contribute to this, ending up with a tapestry that, we hope, can answer the question above.

Naturally, we’re going to need your help with this. If you have a story from Montgomery or the surrounding area that you feel gets to the heart of the American Dream, please let us know. Editor Andre Salles can be reached at andre.salles@patch.com.

And look for the Dispatches logo on stories on Montgomery Patch soon. Thank you for reading and for keeping your dream alive, whatever it is.