Mokena Is Your Town, And Patch Is About Finding Your Stories And News

MOKENA, IL — At Patch, we’re fond of saying that if something happens in a town we cover, residents will read about it on Patch.

That’s a big claim, we realize and, in all honesty, it doesn't always happen. But because news and the stories that matter to people in towns like Mokena are important to you, it's important to us. We want you to feel like your stories matter and we are committed to making sure that you can come to us to find out what’s news in your town.

That’s where you come in and, to a certain extent, where I enter the chat.

My name is Jeff Arnold and for the past 2 ½ years, I’ve been fortunate to be an editor here at Patch. I’m a long-time journalist and from the very start of a career that has taken me from the Midwest to Southern California and from small towns to major cities, I’ve been drawn to storytelling. I’ve always been convinced that everyone — no matter where they live, what they do, or how they are — has a story to tell whether they know it or not.

I live in Chicago, but since coming aboard at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, have worked to tell people’s stories from around the country and more recently, around Illinois. I have recently been assigned Mokena as one of my Patch towns, joining two other of my colleagues in covering the Southland.

Maybe you read my recent profile of an 87-year-old Mokena man who has walked more than 25,000 miles over the past 20 years and has his sights of reaching the 30,000-mile mark over the next five years. I’ve also reported on a Mokena couple who was recently arrested after investigators learned that they used a portion of $1 million in ill-gotten funds from a Payroll Protection Plan loan to purchase a $650,000 home in Mokena. Over the past few months, I've also taken a deep dive into the popular Frankfort landmark Cactus Carol's and an effort by a native son to bring it back after being shuttered for 30 years.

I love good stories, and I’m convinced there are plenty to be found in Mokena. But I need your help. Maybe you have a neighbor who is doing amazing things to make Mokena better. Maybe you have a favorite small business or restaurant that you think could use some good word-of-mouth advertising and could benefit from a business profile on Patch. Or, perhaps, you know of an issue affecting your friends and neighbors that needs to be looked into as a way of keeping elected officials accountable to those who voted them into office.

I’m all ears.

Patch editors believe that the best source of information in a town is the people who live there. So, I’m inviting you to fill my email inbox with story ideas. Big or small, people-related or business-driven, I want to hear what you want to see more of on your Patch news site. That’s right — this Patch site is all about you. We publish these stories so that local residents like yourself feel like they’ve got a place to come where your local news and your local stories matter.

I just need your help in finding the kind of stories you want to read. I can't promise that the news will always be good. But even when tough times hit your community or crimes get committed involving your town, we want you to read about it on Patch.

If you have a story to tell or know of someone who does, I want to know about it. I will do my best to look into each story idea and tell as many of them as I possibly can. If I see sometime on Facebook, perhaps you will get a private message from me, looking to an assist in telling you story. While I have worked really hard to find stories on my own that resonate with readers over the three decades I have worked as a journalist, having ears and eyes in a community is always the best way to know what is happening around town. And that's where you come in.

After all, it’s your town. I just want to write about it.

Jeff Arnold is a veteran journalist who is the Illinois General Assignment Editor at Patch. Reach him at jeff.arnold@patch.com or find him on Twitter @JeffArnold_.