Statehouse coverage receives boost; gardening column to make debut; T&G Santa Fund returns

Greetings, Telegram & Gazette readers. I hope your fall is off to a good and healthy start.

It's been a couple of months now since I started as executive editor of the newspaper, and I wanted to write to introduce what I think are a couple nice enhancements to our coverage.

Statehouse coverage

For the first time in years, the Telegram now has a reporter covering the Statehouse.

She's Kinga Borondy, and she joins the T&G staff after spending the past several months covering Beacon Hill for Gannett's WickedLocal network of publications. A New Jersey native, she spent 20 years covering the Garden State for different outlets. A dozen of those years were in Newark as the crime and emergency services reporter for the Star-Ledger; more recently she was a columnist for The Press of Atlantic City covering fishing, golf and food; and worked as a freelancer.

This week, you may have seen her story on the future of the state Republican Party.

Over the next few weeks, Kinga will provide coverage of key statewide races in the November election. Going forward, she'll be bringing a Worcester County focus to coverage of Beacon Hill.

"I am insatiably curious, love talking with people, finding and following information and telling everybody about it," Kinga says. "I hope to cover the Statehouse in a way that brings legislation to life and makes it meaningful for everyday life."

You can reach her at kborondy@gannett.com.

Gardening Central Mass.

Additionally, starting this weekend, a new gardening column will be making its debut at telegram.com and in the ACT section of the Sunday newspaper.

This column is in partnership with the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill and will be curated by its CEO, Grace Elton. Her vision for the column is to provide ecologically geared gardening advice through fun and informative stories, tips and tricks; to engage, educate and inspire the home gardener; and to be inclusive of people who may be pursuing gardening interests without access to traditional gardening spaces.

"What I love about working with plants is that there is no shortage of opportunities to be amazed," she says. "Plants are essential to our lives in these really big ways, providing food, shelter, medicine and oxygen. On a smaller, individual scale, growing plants can bring us tremendous joy and satisfaction. I hope that this column will inspire readers to discover or deepen their love for plants, gardening and, most of all, the natural world that we are all a part of."

The column will run on the third Sunday of each month.

T&G Santa Fund

In other news of note, we're less than a month way from kicking off the 84th year of the T&G Santa Fund, in which donations from readers, businesses and organizations help brighten the holidays for needy children.

The United Way of Central Massachusetts is our main partner in the effort to deliver toys and books.

Last year, thanks to your generosity, the program raised nearly $110,000 and resulted in 10,627 toys and 1,691 books going to 5,267 children.

We're so thankful for those who have supported this effort in the past. We're making preparations now for what we hope will be an even bigger year for T&G Santa.

Michael McDermott is executive editor of the Telegram & Gazette. Contact him at mcdermott@telegram.com

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Statehouse coverage receives boost; gardening column to make debut; T&G Santa Fund returns