September barely has its shoes on, and y’all already got us giddy and itchin’ for Pumpkin Spice Szn awaiting us. Hope on the Porch 2026 is officially underway, and all month long we’re asking one small question with a whole lot of room inside it: Hope is ____.

Today’s issue is a porch worth celebrating with a familiar attraction getting ready to glow, ten neighbors finally getting their flowers, and Clementine making room for a tender goodbye to Miss Dolly.

Enough dillyin’ and dallyin’, let’s get to yappin’ instead!

This week’s tune comes straight from our collaborative Hope on the Porch Spotify playlist. Click the link below before ya start reading if you wanna listen, and add a couple songs to the playlist for us to throw in for next week 👀

This week’s Front Porch Partner is Pique, and they’re helping us a lil’ differently this week! One click from yer email puts $2.25 on our Out of the Darkness Walk team page for AFSP Chattanooga. No purchase required or money comin’ out of your pocket.

That may be the easiest good deed you can do on the porch.

Alright, Pique—you’ve got the floor.

I quit my afternoon coffee. Not because I wanted to — because I found something better.

You know that wall you hit every day around 2–3 PM? I used to just accept it as the cost of doing anything. Another coffee, a quick spike, then the crash — and somehow I'd still feel dehydrated by dinner.

Then I tried X·E Fountain, Pique's brand-new electrolyte energy drink, and I genuinely wasn't ready for how good "no crash" could feel.

No caffeine jitters. No 4 PM slump. Just clean, steady energy that actually hydrates me instead of draining me. It's built with a premium Vitamin B Complex for natural cellular energy, Magnesium Malate + Taurate for real focus, and a full electrolyte blend that makes it feel like a treat, not a chore.

The cucumber-celery-lime flavor is so crisp and refreshing — it's basically stolen my afternoon coffee slot completely.

For launch, get 15% off for life

Fill-a-Bag Sale (Art Supply Edition)
Saturday, September 5 @ The Chattery | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Creative ReSupply by The Chattery is cleaning house, and their overstock art supplies will be up for grabs. $5 gets you a mini bag and $15 gets you a grocery bag that you can fill with all the supplies you can carry. There will be yarn, buttons, paint, fabric, and more to choose from, so come early for all the best finds!

🎨 We love a crafty shopportunity

PBS KIDS Early Screening of Super Why
Saturday, September 5 @ Chattanooga Public Library (Downtown) | 2:00 - 3:30 PM

Calling all Super Readers! Super Why is back and this time, they’re superheroes! Join WTCI PBS, the Chattanooga Public Library, and Arts Based Collaborative at UTC for a very special early screening of the new PBS KIDS series, Super Why’s Comic Book Adventures! It’s going to be out of this world!

🦹 The Super Readers saved the day!

Noontunes Kickoff
Thursday, September 3 @ Miller Park | 12:00 - 1:00 PM 

Mix up your weekday lunch break with Noontunes! Enjoy live music from local artists at Miller Park every Thursday in September, along with games, food trucks, and outdoor fun with friends and neighbors. Come see why Chattanooga’s music scene is one of the best around!

🎶Party in the park

It’s a 2000’s Party
Friday, September 4 @ The Signal | 9:00 PM - 1:00 AM 

Break out the graphic tees and velour tracksuits because this dance party is taking you back to Y2K! Get ready to get down to all the pop, rock, hip-hop, and R&B top tracks of the 2000’s and 2010’s. The DJ will keep the hits spinning all night long so you can sing your heart out and dance the night away! Tickets are going fast, so grab yours today!

🪩 Anyway, here’s Wonderwall

9/11 Memorial Stair Climb
Sunday, September 6 @ Erlanger Park | 9:00 AM- 1:00 PM 

It has been 25 years since the horrific events of 9/11/2001, and Chattanooga is commemorating that with a Memorial Stair Climb. This event is an opportunity for individuals to climb or walk the equivalent of the 110 stories of the World Trade Center to honor the 343 firefighters who lost their lives that day. Proceeds benefit the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation to support behavioral health and wellness programs for firefighters and provide aid to the families of fallen firefighters. 

A climb to remember

Community Walk & Unwind
Sunday, September 6 @ Coolidge Park | 5:00 - 6:30 PM 

Start your week off right with an evening of community mindfulness with Rooted Paths Outdoor Club, Yzin Meditation, and Outdoor Chattanooga. Come at 5:00 to start the evening with a $5 guided meditation, out join up at 5:35 for the free community walk along the riverfront. Come out to wind down and reset in nature while enjoying intentional time with the community. 

👟 Now walk it out

Got somethin’ you wanna tell the community about?

Tell us all about it with our new and improved events form, or just reply to this email with your event details and we’ll go from there!

Big news alllllll the way from the mountaintop, neighbor: Rock City’s Enchanted Pumpkin Patch returns September 18 through Halloween with new lighted displays, hand-carved sculptures, seasonal color, and plenty of daytime and nighttime mischief along the Enchanted Trail.

After nearly a thousand glowing pumpkins took over the mountain last fall, Rock City added a whole extra week and gave artists even more room to get wonderfully weird with it. Here’s what’s sproutin’ up for year two:

They’ve also got fan favorites returning, like Pumpkin painting at Prospector’s Point, Appalachian folk music, and that good ‘ole Choo Choo Kettle Corn.

The whole patch is designed to be spooky, not scary and a family-fun adventure that any Chattanoogan would enjoy.

Here’s the news I’ve been waiting to share for a hot minute: the AIM Center has announced the first-ever recipients of Chattanooga’s Mental Health Hero Awards.

We’ve been honored to help behind the scenes, and this inaugural class shows just how many forms that care can take throughout the city. From advocacy and clinical support to art, equity, recovery, and good old-fashioned showing up.

Here’s a quick rundown of the winners from each category:

These names range from longtime community leaders, young advocates, people changing policy and expanding access, making art, creating safer spaces, and above all helping their neighbors feel less alone.

Individually they show one piece of the puzzle they’re working on. When together, this mosaic of humanity best showcases that mental health care takes an entire community learning how to show up — which you can do at the inaugural dinner celebrating them!

This dinner on Thursday, October 29 brings all ten honorees into one room at The Westin Chattanooga for a SWANKY evening of recognition and storytelling, while raising the support the AIM Center needs to keep its Clubhouse, recovery resources, housing, and employment programs movin’ onward and onward.

Since 1989, the AIM Center has helped adults living with serious mental illness build lives filled with purpose, relationships, opportunity, and dignity. Its Clubhouse is the only Clubhouse International-accredited program in Tennessee, offering members a place to belong and work toward recovery on their own terms. One promise sits at the center of it all: once you’re a member, you’re always a member.

Like most of you, Miss Dolly Parton has been heavy on my heart and mind this last week. The world lost such a bright light when she passed, but what a legacy she leaves behind! Dolly was a champion for all people, no matter who or where they are. She was an advocate for children’s literacy and education. She was a business woman, a theme park connoisseur, and an award winning actress. And of course, she was the Queen of Country Music!

Dolly’s light will never truly go out because she changed the world like no one has ever done before. One way she did that was through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. This free, book gifting program mails children a free book every month from birth until their 5th birthday. That’s 60 books of their very own that a kid gets before starting kindergarten! The Imagination Library has given away more than 300 million books since starting in 1995. That’s a lot of reading!!

Here in Hamilton County, more than 14,000 children are already receiving their monthly books! You can register your child for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library at Signal Centers. What a beautiful way to honor Miss Dolly’s legacy with one of her favorite things - high quality and engaging children’s books!

Another way you can celebrate Dolly’s life this week is by contributing to the Dolly tribute wall at the Chattanooga Public Library downtown. Grab a butterfly to write a memory, favorite song, or message about what Dolly meant to you. The tribute will be on display through Saturday, September 5, so if you’re in the area, stop by to leave your butterfly for Dolly.

I’ll never have enough words to explain the legacy Dolly left on this world, especially as a Tennessean. She was one of a kind and one of the good ones.

Thank you for everything, Dolly. We will always love you. 💖🦋

Between these fantastic Mental Health Heroes, a mountain full of pumpkins, and a lasting legacy of one very sparkly Tennessean, this week serves as a reminder that hope rarely stays in one place when somebody else shares it.

Before long, it belongs to all of us.

Thanks for spendin’ a little time with us, neighbor. We already can’t wait for next week’s surprises that lie ahead!

— Bubby & Clementine