903 Foundation

Gratitude has always been part of what 903 Day is about: seeing our community show up for one another🤍

As we pause for World Gratitude Day today, we’re especially thankful for every nonprofit, business, volunteer, donor, and neighbor who has supported the 903 Day Foundation thus far. You give your time, share our posts, donate, and cheer on the people doing good work right here at home.

Thank you for loving the 903 as much as we do! 🫶

What an honor to work alongside this amazing organization. In case you missed it the Athens, TX VFW -Post 7103- honored 20 POW/MIA soldiers today, with a special story of two brothers from Malakoff, whose family were in attendance.

Such a blessing to be part of this community!

And our FINAL 903day check is going to one of the newer nonprofits in our community; and quite possibly one of the coolest places you didn't know was right in our backyard! 🌱❤️

The Learning Gardens is an off-grid permaculture farm & outdoor education center just outside Athens, and their mission is all about preserving sustainable ways of living through permaculture practices & outdoor education, rooted in community and connection.

Translation? They teach people how to DO stuff again. 🙌

Growing & preserving food. Gardening. Foraging. Composting. Seed saving. Beekeeping. Rainwater collection. Natural building. Sustainable living. And they're teaching these skills to adults AND the next generation through hands-on classes, youth programs, workshops, volunteer opportunities & their Texas Permaculture Expo.

And the setting makes it even better. Their property isn't just where the classes happen; the land itself is part of the classroom.They're using regenerative agriculture to restore property that was once part of a sand & clay quarry, rebuilding the soil and native ecosystems while teaching others how to care for the land along the way.

Their philosophy says it beautifully: while growing food is at the heart of what they do, growing minds is equally important.🌱🧠

And THAT is where the missions of The Learning Gardens & the 903 Foundation meet.

903 Day has always been about recognizing the incredible resources already here, connecting local people with local organizations & keeping our support right here at HOME. The Learning Gardens is taking knowledge, land, volunteers & community support and turning all of it into something that can be passed to the next generation.

Thanks once again to our generous 903 Day Grand Prize winners, the final portion of our raffle & afterparty proceeds is going right back into the 903 to help something very special continue to GROW. 🌱❤️

Grow food. Grow skills. Grow minds. Grow COMMUNITY.

Sounds like a pretty great way to wrap up this year's checks to us. ❤️

903 Check #12 is headed to Lila Lane Outreach ❤️

For more than 16 years, Lila Lane has been providing something incredibly important right here in Athens: a place for men to rebuild.

Lila Lane Outreach is a Christ-centered residential recovery home serving men working to overcome addiction, homelessness, destructive behaviors and some of life's hardest seasons. Their mission is to walk alongside people as they move from crisis to stability; meeting basic needs while providing safe housing, spiritual mentoring, counseling, life skills, employment support & the structure needed to build a different future.

And this isn't just a place to sleep. In 2025 alone, 75 men had a place to call home through Lila Lane, 67 found jobs with a living wage, and more than 600 counseling sessions were provided. That's lives being restored, families being reunited & men getting another opportunity to become productive members of the community we all share.

And we can't talk about Lila Lane without talking about its Executive Director, Wanda Miles, because Wanda has also provided what may very well be one of the MOST coveted prizes in the entire 903 Day raffle. 😂🍪

THE BOTTOMLESS COOKIE JAR. FOR. AN. ENTIRE. YEAR.

The lucky winner gets to choose whatever kind of cookies they want, baked by Wanda herself, a *lState Fair-winning baker, all year long. If you've ever had one of Wanda's cookies, you already understand why people have their eye on this one. 😂

That's the beauty of 903 Day. Sometimes people give money. Sometimes they give time. Sometimes they give their talents. And apparently sometimes they give 365 days of COOKIES.🍪❤️

Thanks again to our Grand Prize winners for choosing to pour their winnings right back into organizations like Lila Lane that are doing the hard, often unseen work of restoring lives right here at home.

Second chances. Restored families. Changed lives. That's worth investing in, 903. ❤️

903 Check #11 goes to a club that has been quietly loving on the children of Athens for generations: the Athens Kiwanis Club! ❤️

If you grew up around here, chances are some of your childhood memories happened at Kiwanis Park; or the “Rocket Park,” as us natives will probably always call it. 🚀 That rocket has been climbed by generations of Athens kids, and the park remains our city's designated children's park today.

But Rocket Park is only ONE piece of the incredible impact Kiwanis has had on our community.

For at least 70 years, the Athens Kiwanis Club has been showing up for local kids. They raise money for programs benefiting children, host traditions like Kiwanis Pancake Days & the annual Easter Egg Hunt, support youth initiatives and continue investing their time, money & manpower right back into the community.

And they're making sure one of our most beloved childhood landmarks is around for the NEXT generation, too. Kiwanis recently completed Phase I of a multi-year renovation of Kiwanis Park, with even more improvements planned. Sidenote: our very own 903 Foundation founder Aaron Michael Taylor just gave The Rocket a shiny new paint job not too long ago!

That's what we love about organizations like this. They don't just leave their mark on a community: they help raise generations of it.

Thanks again to our generous 903day Grand Prize winners, another portion of our raffle & afterparty proceeds is staying right here at home, supporting an organization that has spent decades doing the very same thing.

Kids need people in their corner. Athens has had Kiwanis in theirs for generations. ❤️🚀

903 Check #10 is headed to the Cain Center YMCA! ❤️💪

For those of us who grew up in Athens, the Cain Center has been part of our community for as long as many of us can remember. We learned to swim there, played sports there, attended events there & probably have a few childhood memories tucked inside those walls.

But in 2023, a new chapter began when the YMCA came to Athens and the Cain Center became its second branch; bringing with it the programs, resources & mission of an organization that has been strengthening communities for generations.

The YMCA's mission is “to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all.” And we especially love those last two words: FOR ALL.❤️

Today, the Cain Center YMCA is serving our community through youth sports, swimming & aquatics, camps, fitness programs, senior activities, family programming & so much more—all while creating opportunities for people of different ages, backgrounds & abilities to connect and belong.

That's exactly the kind of investment in our hometown that the 903 Foundation wants to support.

Thanks to the generosity of our 903 Day Grand Prize winners, another portion of our raffle & afterparty proceeds is staying right here in the 903 and helping the YMCA continue building stronger kids, stronger families & a stronger community.

The Cain Center may hold a whole lot of Athens nostalgia, but we’re pretty excited about what the YMCA is building there for the NEXT generation.❤️