Dear HopNews Readers,

On December 2, 2022 I purchased HopNews from founder Robert Falcione. Bob worked tirelessly to build HopNews into the very first and most popular online news site for Hopkinton, and I am tremendously grateful for the opportunity to carry his efforts forward.

My name is Peter, and I live in Hopkinton with my wife and three children. My fascination with journalism formed at an early age. I was an avid reader and writer as a young person, and my favorite high school class was Journalism, which published the school newspaper. I wrote articles, developed photos (in the dark room, in those days), and designed the pages.

After High School (while I was still trying to figure out what to do with my life), I worked on the sports desk for my local community paper, the Woodinville Weekly. The publisher, Carol, was very generous, and she let me try out a lot of different jobs at the paper. I loved working there, but soon discovered I was better at computer programming. Ultimately, I went on to form a marketing software company, which I ran for 20 years, until it sold in 2019.

By now you may have concluded that I am not originally from Hopkinton, or even Massachusetts. We moved here in August 2015 from the Seattle area, and didn’t know a soul in town when we landed. But we registered our kids for town soccer, and within a week we’d met our first couple friends (shout-out to Alex & Alison Woodbury). Before we knew it, we were plugged in to this community.

And that’s how it happens in Hopkinton. I am consistently impressed by how nice the people in our town are. Sure, they’re direct, but so am I, so that works for me. But I made instant, lifelong friendships in this town, in the most unexpected way. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

Thank you for reading HopNews. Thank you for continuing to contribute the pictures and stories that you see. Thank you for trusting us with your time and attention, both of which are valuable commodities these days.

All my best,

Peter Thomas

P.S. I’m not far away! Please contact me anytime, or if it’s easier, shoot an email to editor@hopnews.com or a text to (508) 494-5739.

P.P.S. As to why I waited a few days to announce this, it’s because I didn’t want to take the focus off of Bob. It is difficult to overstate his contribution to our community and he deserves to be celebrated.