Pat's Suggestion Box

06/07/2026

Our Hampton United Methodist Church is putting together Birthday Cake Kits so no one goes without a birthday cake on their birthday.

Drop off cake mix and frosting at the church and we'll do the rest.

Kits (including candles, pan, soda, cake mix and frosting) are available at the Food Pantry in Hampton!

Or send a donation to:
Hampton United Methodist Church
100 Central Ave E
Hampton, IA 50441

06/07/2026

When I started Pat's Suggestion Box, this is the sort of thing in envisioned, but then I never posted it to this page....

Anyway, this is what I've been up to and if you can help, that would be great!

Over the last school year, the outstanding school lunch debt has skyrocketed to $23,800. The board has hired a collection agency to hit parents up if they owe $100 or more. Imagine, getting a ding on your credit for $100. So, I decided to do something about it. I decided to start a fund raiser to get these preditory companies off of the backs of people who may be going through a rough time.
Some of you may say, "Well... they owe it and that's a good place to start..." Well, the collection agency is not going to give H-D all the money they collect and are going to charge the district for the service to boot. To add insult to injury, one of the members of the school board said, "Well, just post the names of the peope who owe money in the paper!"

As you can imagine, that didn't go over well at all either.

Now, as you can imagine, we didn't get here overnight, but this was the first time all year that this was discussed and I'm a bit pi**ed that when it hit $5,000 it wasn't talked about... let alone $23,800. But, we can only get so far being pi**ed off, so I decided to help.

I am taking donations to pay down this debt before July 1st when the collection agency starts up. I'm trying to get everyone paid up who is at least $100 in debt to the school. Here are my payment options...

I have 3 online options:
PayPal - [email protected]
Venmo - (watch the spelling because of scammers)
CashApp - $yankzpat

I'm also going to be meeting with a the school superintendent to see if we can't come up with a way to fix the issue, because a year from now, I cannot go back to people and ask again for donations. I'm looking to put together a small group to tackle the issue locally, then to hold a forum for board members, legislative candidates and local leaders to figure out the solutions to these issues.

Anyway, if you can help us out, that would be great. We are just about to our goal and I'd like to wrap it up this week. I'll be on WHO-TV sometime this week as well, talking about these issues.
Thank you so much for reading this and if you can help, that would be fantastic!

Sorry I didn't update this page sooner!!

02/27/2026

I don't think the public understands all of the costs of nuisances .... Financially with tax dollars, reputation, our local businesses.... Clarion is sick of it.

02/13/2026

Here's a tool I would be lost without -- USPS Informed Delivery. Every morning about 7:30am, I get an email showing me what will be in my mailbox later that day!! It also tracks packages as well. Sign up, it's free!!

Informed Delivery is a free service from USPS that shows you preview images of incoming mail, plus status updates about your incoming and outbound packages. Get notifications in a morning Daily Digest email, or at any time from the dashboard using your smartphone, computer, or USPS Mobile app.

02/12/2026

Gift card purchases can really boost a business during a rough patch. After a big snow storm where the downtown is closed for several days, I like to buy gift cards/certificates because I know that restaurants need fast cash as some of their food may have gone bad after the storm.

Stop by any of the eating establishments in Franklin County and pick up a gift card -- both your loved one AND the restaurant will appreciate it!

02/11/2026

Did you know you can check for vehicle recalls by going to this site? Also, it's advised you go to your car manufacturer website as well, but this is a short cut....

Use our VIN lookup tool to check for recalls on your car, or search by make and model. Our databases also list car seats, tires, and equipment recalled for unreasonable safety risk or failing to meet minimum safety standards.

02/09/2026

A very cool concept!! Something special for our area!! Sign up today!!

01/29/2026

A few years ago I was at an event at the home of David & Cindy Bertolino. Those names don't mean much to you I'm sure, but they are a couple of very nice people from North Hollywood, California. They are selfless in generosity and have helped me out, along with many others.

They have a sign that they post when they host events at their home.....

"There's no limit to what you can do or where you can go, if you don't mind who gets the credit."

I'd like to think of this motto as to what we can do in Hampton and Franklin County. If you see a need, just take care of it -- great or small.

01/27/2026

This was brought up to me today in one of the threads on here and I want to bring it up to for general discussion.....

I think Hampton needs a pool of 4-5 flexible 1099 contract employees that could be called on or scheduled in a pinch or if someone calls in sick or there's a doctor's appointment.

Maybe 1 Saturday at month at the Library or someone has a sick kid. It would take some work, but I think that Hampton could benefit from some sort of labor pool. I don't think that one business could lean on someone for 7 days in a row, but a shift or day now and then might be logical. I just HATE to see businesses short on labor OR have to close in the middle of the day. If you are not consistent with your hours -- it leads to "well, they are never open" type of comments....and negativity.

When I struggled with help when my employee was on vacation, I hired a gal who could answer the phone -- that's all she did. If someone stopped by, I knew she could write up a sheet on a computer issue....no computer knowledge required. I paid her in cash...she was happy and I was happy....

The pay would be a bit of an issue, but let's say $13 an hour to start with for everyone -- 1099 contract so no one has to take out taxes and just a phone call away.

Your thoughts?????