Episode 13: Pocket Change Podcast
Leaders Credit Union is centered around Jackson and West Tennessee, and one of the significant days in our community is 731 Day. On this episode of the Pocket Change Podcast, our guest Courtney Searcy, Program Director of Our Jackson Home, tells us the mission of Our Jackson Home and all that you need to know about 731 Day coming up.
“Porchfest is an annual music festival in your neighborhood. It's held in the historic Lambuth Area neighborhood. And every year we have a selection of artists from a variety of different genres that we feel represent our community,” Courtney said. “That gives us an opportunity to bring people together. And I think when I talk about, you know, our goal to celebrate the people and the stories, that happens in our magazine and that happens on our blog, and I think the events are a really special way to kind of bring that to life and connect people in person.”
Summary
731 Day is a community event that celebrates the people and stories of Jackson, Tennessee. The event is organized by Our Jackson Home, a nonprofit organization that promotes the city of Jackson through its journal and events. One of the main events of 731 Day is Porchfest, a free music festival that takes place in the Historic Lambuth Area neighborhood. This year's Porchfest will feature five local musicians, including Hunter Cross, Rob & Jay, Carita Cole, Ajèd, and Erin Rae. Porchfest is scheduled for Monday, July 31st from 5pm to 8pm and there is no cost to attend.
Our Jackson Home was founded in 2015 by a group of recent college graduates who wanted to create a publication that would celebrate the people and stories of Jackson. The organization's mission is to "celebrate the people and stories of the city that we all love." In addition to Porchfest, Our Jackson Home also hosts a variety of other events throughout the year, including art walks, film screenings, and community conversations.
731 Day is a great opportunity to learn more about the city of Jackson and to connect with your neighbors. If you're planning to attend Porchfest, be sure to bring a picnic blanket or chair and enjoy the music!
Key Takeaways
- Our Jackson Home is a nonprofit organization housed under theCO and its mission is to celebrate the people and stories of Jackson.
- 731 Day is coming up on July 31 and is a day that is dedicated to celebrating Jackson, and this day serves to encourage businesses, people in the community, or whoever wants to be involved to do something special in our city.
- Porchfest is the main event at 731 Day and is a free music festival in the historic Lambuth Area neighborhood.
- This year’s Porchfest musicians are Hunter Cross, Rob & Kay, Carita Cole, Ajed, and Erin Rae.
To find out more information about 731 Day and Porchfest, you can visit 731day.com. If you want to know how Leaders supports our community, you can check out our community involvement on our website.
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Full Transcript
Shea:
Hey, this is Shea.
Mary Helen:
This is Mary Helen.
Shea:
Welcome to the Pocket Change podcast.
Mary Helen:
Where you’ll learn better ways to spend, save, and invest and take control of your financial journey.
Shea:
So, Mary Helen, on Episode 11, we had the downtown director for Jackson, Tennessee on the episode and talked about all things downtown Jackson. You know, we're a credit union founded and headquartered in Jackson, Tennessee, so we want to highlight all the great things that are happening in our community, not only here, but all the areas that we serve.
But specific to Jackson is 731 Day. 731 area code. July 31st. It's a big day. So we're going to learn more about that.
Mary Helen:
And I'm excited to see and talk more about just all the initiatives that go on that day and how we can invest in our community.
Shea:
I mean, so many groups and employers and organizations come together for just a great day of community. So I'm excited to learn more.
Mary Helen:
Today, we are so excited to welcome our guests, Courtney Searcy, who's the program director of Our Jackson Home. Thanks for being on the podcast today.
Courtney Searcy:
Thanks for having me.
Mary Helen:
So start off by telling us a little bit about yourself and Our Jackson Home.
Courtney Searcy:
So I am the program director of Our Jackson Home. Our Jackson Home is a small nonprofit housed under the CO. And we do a couple of things. So we have a journal. Our new issue that just came out. And we do community events. And our goal is really what our mission statement is, and that is to celebrate the people and the stories of the city that we love.
So Our Jackson Home started probably in 2015. I actually at that point had just graduated college. And Luke Pruitt, who I think has been on this project and Jim Wilhelm had started a podcast called Our Jackson Home, and there were a handful of us who had recently graduated, who were creatives, writers, photographers who just wanted to see something like this happen in Jackson.
And Katie Howerton took the idea of Our Jackson Home as a magazine for her senior art show. I was involved as a writer for that first issue and the CO... One of the coolest parts of our story, I think, is that the CO saw what Our Jackson Home was and said we want this to continue. We think this is something important and it has grown to what it is.
So I took over as the program director in February of 2020, so a month before...
Shea:
Before everything.
Courtney Searcy:
...COVID. Great time to start a community oriented job. But, I've been here for three years kind of leading our magazine and events, and it's been great.
Shea:
So remind us about the mission and the purpose of Our Jackson Home.
Courtney Searcy:
So the mission statement of Our Jackson Home, you'll see it on the home page of our website, is to celebrate the people and the stories of the city that we all love. Jackson, Tennessee.
Mary Helen:
Which is just, to me, it's so profound because it really is just loving your neighbor and loving who's next to you no matter where you are, no matter what your job is, or what part of town that you live in.
Shea:
And I think that's even if- I'm not from Jackson originally, but coming to Jackson and being in Jackson, you really feel that connection and community with those around us that I think that's a great initiative that many people are involved in and you can feel that and have that sense of home and belonging because of the initiatives like Our Jackson Home. So I think that's great.
Courtney Searcy:
Yeah, it's a really wonderful way to kind of learn to see the people around you and kind of the things that they've invested in for sure.
Mary Helen:
Okay. So let's talk about something fun. Let's talk about 731 Day. It's coming up. How did it earn its name? 731. We talked about it a little bit in the intro, but tell everybody, spell it out.
Courtney Searcy:
Yeah. So Our Jackson Home started celebrating 731 Day, I believe, in 2015 or 16’. So 731 is obviously our area code and July 31st is 7/31. So the day was basically started as an initiative to just encourage people to celebrate this place specifically. So it has grown every single year into something that really has become more of a, from an Our Jackson Home thing, to an organic community led sort of day.
So on 731 Day, we encourage businesses, organizations, whoever wants to be involved to do something special for 731 Day. So for some businesses, that's a special deal. $7.31 for a meal. Someone might offer their service discounted. Someone might have a special workout class that day. Some of our fun, like long standing things: Town and Country started with a water balloon fight.
The first year they had 731 water balloons, which sounds like a lot of water balloons.
Shea:
That can go fast!
Courtney Searcy:
The next year, they were like, okay, let's go with 7,310 water balloons. That one got canceled for COVID. So they were like, well, let's double it. So who knows! I haven't heard this year, but maybe we'll get triple. But that is kind of a fun, long standing event that they've taken the initiative to keep going. And then for Our Jackson Home, our annual event, which is one of my favorites in the community, is Porchfest.
So Porchfest is an annual...basically a music festival in your neighborhood. It's held in the historic Lambuth Area neighborhood. And every year we have a selection of artists from a variety of different genres that we feel represent our community. That gives us an opportunity to bring people together. And I think when I talk about, you know, our goal to celebrate the people and the stories, that happens in our magazine and that happens on our blog, and I think the events are a really special way to kind of bring that to life and connect people in person.
So 731 Day, I think the spirit of that, of Porchfest, is really just to get people together and to celebrate and appreciate their community.
Shea:
So for 731 Day businesses can be involved, organizations, how do they say, okay, we're going to have this deal? Do they contact Our Jackson Home? You? What's the process for that?
Courtney Searcy:
So we promote anybody who wants to submit an event. We will promote. So if you just go to 731day.com, you will find a form you can fill out. Let us know what you have going on and we will update our website to share what's going on. And then, if you're just someone in the community who wants to participate, you can also check that out for the schedule of events, any deals, anything like that happening.
Shea:
So that was 731day.com? You can find it all there. 731day.com. Awesome.
Mary Helen:
So earlier you mentioned Porchfest. Can you give us a couple more details about that.
Courtney Searcy:
Yes. So Porchfest, once again, happens every year on 731 Day.
Shea:
On people's porches.
Courtney Searcy:
Yeah! So, every year it's a little bit different of a path, but we set up the stages in people's yards. Sometimes it's front yard, sometimes it's the backyard, and people just come out with their picnic blankets in their chairs and roam the neighborhood and hear live local music. So this year it will be Monday evening, it's a Monday, so it's a little different.
Monday evening from about 5 to 8 or 9. One thing we really try to do is pick a selection of artists who represent a variety of genres and also keep that rotation fresh so that we're always bringing in new faces, kind of keeping that representative of our whole community. So this year we have five artists that we have a selection committee that has chosen five artists. Either originating from Jackson, West Tennessee, or who are local.
So those five artists this year are Hunter Cross, who is a big advocate for the Jackson music scene. We're excited to have him again. We have Rob & Jay they are a wonderful also returning artist, Carita Cole, Ajèd, and then this year we are really excited to bring in Erin Rae, who is a singer songwriter who grew up in Jackson, has gone on to live in Nashville, has been touring and we're really excited to bring her in as a headliner this year.
But every year, it's a wonderful experience to kind of get a chance to hear some of your local musicians, people who have started here, people who care about this place and maybe like learn a new musician. Hear something you wouldn't have heard before. So we're excited.
Shea:
Well I love all the connections back to Jackson, because it's not just Memphis or Nashville. Jackson's got good music and, you know, strong musicians. So to have that, obviously for 731 Day, have that connection is awesome to bring these artists back. So I think it's exciting to have Porchfest coming back.
Courtney Searcy:
And we have a wonderful committee that helps us plan Porchfest. So I can't go without mentioning Darren Lykes, Stedman Roebuck, Lauren Pritchard, and Rob Griffith. They're really well connected in the community and really care about creating a lineup that is fresh and that represents kind of the best of the spirit that Jackson has to offer through their music.
Shea:
So is there any cost to attend Porchfest you just bring your picnic table and chair and...
Courtney Searcy:
Yes, it is a completely free community event. Thanks to our many sponsors. Jackson Hidden Tracks is our title sponsor. Each musician has a stage sponsor and we are so grateful for that support. It really makes the event possible to have that support and to be able to pay our artists and bring the community together at a really wonderful free event.
It's really special.
Shea:
Thank you to those sponsors and those groups that are just bringing the community together. That's great.
Mary Helen:
To me, it's just such a shame to not know the people that we live next to. And so I feel like Porchfest, 731 Day allows us an opportunity to really get to know our community and the people that we reside next to the people that are next door, down the street, whatever it may be.
Shea:
So, Courtney, how do we connect with Our Jackson Home? What's the best way?
Courtney Searcy:
There are a couple of ways to connect with Our Jackson Home. You can always check out our website which is ourjacksonhome.com to read stories. You can read both blog and magazine features there. We're on Facebook and Instagram. You can also pick up a copy of the journal at Turntable Coffee Counter or the CO if you'd like a print copy.
So that's the best way to keep up with us.
Shea:
Check it out. The issue comes out how often?
Courtney Searcy:
We publish twice a year, so there'll be another issue in the fall.
Mary Helen:
So if you had some extra change in your pocket, pocket change, what would you spend it on?
Courtney Searcy:
Honestly, if I had a little pocket change, I would definitely be buying a little treat, probably from a local business. I spend a lot of time at Turntable Coffee Counter, Peppermint Addie's, Grubbs Grocery. Just going to have a little treat.
Mary Helen:
Thanks so much for being on the podcast today.
Courtney Searcy:
Thanks for having me and I'm excited to see everyone at 731 Day!
Shea:
Thanks for tuning in to the Pocket Change podcast.
Mary Helen:
Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe and watch our full episodes on YouTube.
Shea:
The Pocket Change podcast brought to you by Leaders Credit Union.
Mary Helen:
Where we power your passion and make lives better.
Cha-Ching!
