The Daily Five: School Safety, Operation Snuggle Newtown, Patch Postpones Relaunch

1. Showers starting early today may ease off in the afternoon before resuming again tonight, according to Weather.com. The high temperature will be around 47 degrees with an overnight low of 44 degrees.  

2. All of us are still reeling from the shock of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Friday that has dominated the national news throughout the weekend. It's been difficult to write about and painful to read about and, frankly, as editor for The Lymes Patch, I'm torn between wanting to give you all the breaking news and wanting to give everyone a break from the nonstop coverage.

Today, I'm running a number of stories relating to the shooting because I believe they are important, but for every breaking detail, the Newtown Patch is absolutely the best source. The reporters for this local Patch have been working overtime and reporting, as all of us have, through their tears. And they'll be staying on the job and following the families and the schools as they struggle to recover from this unspeakable tragedy long after the national media have packed their bags and flown off to cover the next big story

3. This morning, parents may be a little more nervous about sending their kids to school. Accordingly, all local schools have taken extra security precautions that will be in place today and for the rest of the week. Please, be assured, our local schools well-prepared to deal with emergencies and all staff are prepped to handle questions from kids today.

4. The Teddy Bear has become a symbol for the very young victims of the school shooting. If you'd like to join Operation Snuggle Newtown, launched by Patch to collect teddy bears to send to children in Newtown, a number of local businesses in East Lyme and Old Lyme have kindly offered to serve as collection points. You'll find them listed on the story posted today. 

5. In this column on Friday, I said you'd be waking up to see a whole new Patch this morning and, you're not. On Saturday, Patch decided to postpone the relaunch of the site until after the Holidays. I'd still strongly encourage business owners who have yet to claim their listing on Patch's Directory, and businesses who aren't listed but should be, to do this before the new site launches, however.

This is free but it takes a few days to process claims and new business listings. Every business will have its own "group" on the new Patch (think of it as a web site within a web site) that business owners will be able to manage just as they manage their own Facebook or business sites. It's a super opportunity to reach all your customers and grow your business.