Five Tennessee cities · August – September 2026
This time, the crowd comes for them.
Five weeks, five Tennessee cities, and a free night out for the whole community in each one. Live music, food, room for the kids to run. We put our first responders and teachers at the center of it — and before the night is over, we give something real away.
- Free for everyone
- Open to the whole community
- Live music
- Kids welcome
Why Build Days exists
Every community runs on a handful of people who only ever show up for somebody else.
It’s worth saying plainly who we mean.
- The teacher who spends her own August paycheck on supplies, in a room that hasn’t been touched since before her students were born.
- The volunteer fire department running one engine with two hundred thousand miles on it, answering calls at 3 a.m. for a county that can’t afford to pay them.
- The street that turns out for everybody else’s crisis — the funerals, the fires, the search parties — and has never once had a night that belonged to it.
These are the people who hold a place together. And almost nobody ever shows up at their door with a truck full of lumber and asks what they need.
So that’s the whole idea. Throw the night for the people who never get thrown one.
Five weeks, five cities, and in each one an evening that belongs to them. There’s live music. Kids run loose until somebody carries them to the car. Neighbors who’ve lived four doors apart for nine years finally shake hands. Every first responder who walks in eats free — no ticket, no line, no speech to sit through first.
And the whole town is invited. Not just the departments, not just the schools — anybody who lives there. That isn’t a courtesy, it’s the entire mechanism: you cannot honor somebody in an empty room. The crowd is the gift.
And before the night is over, we give something real away. A classroom rebuilt for a teacher who’s been buying her own supplies since August. A vehicle for a department that’s been making one work for fifteen years. Not a plaque, not a proclamation — something they’ll still be using in 2040.
We don’t choose who. Tennessee does. Every name called from that stage got there because somebody who knows them sat down and wrote in.
Two ways to put somebody forward
Somebody in your life deserves a night like this.
Nominations are open now and close two weeks before each city’s Neighborhood Night. Honorees are announced live at that event — so bring the people who signed the nomination.
For teachers
The Classroom Rebuild
One teacher’s classroom, torn down to the studs and rebuilt in a day — paint, furniture, storage, technology, and whatever else she’s been going without. She tells us what the room needs. We build that, not what we assumed.
Who can nominate
Anybody — a parent, a student’s family, a fellow teacher, a neighbor, a principal.
How entries are earned
For first responders
The Classroom Rebuild
One or two Tennessee first responder units receive a utility vehicle for their department — the kind that gets to a brush fire, a trail rescue, or a festival medical call where an engine can’t go. Chosen for the units running hardest on the least.
Who can nominate
How entries are earned
01
Put a name in
Nominate a teacher or a first responder unit. Anybody can do it, and it takes about four minutes.
02
Tell their people
Family, neighbors, the shift, the parent group. Anyone who turns out at that city’s Neighborhood Night can check in for them.
03
Every check-in counts
Each person who comes and names them earns them one entry. A crowd that shows up for somebody is the whole point.
04
Drawn that night
Names come out of the drum on stage before the music ends. One classroom. One or two units.
Can’t be there? You can still earn your nominee an entry, free, without attending — the official rules explain how, along with entry deadlines, eligibility, and odds.
Neighborhood Nights
A free night out for the whole town.
Live music, food, and a kids’ zone — free, all of it, for everybody who lives there. No ticket, no donation, nothing to buy, and you don’t have to be a first responder, a teacher, or a nominee to walk in. You just have to come. Every first responder who does eats free, and before the night is over we give something real away.
Memphis
Nashville
Knoxville
Chattanooga
Tri-Cities
Roundtables
Small rooms. No podium.
Working sessions with the people who actually do the job. Seats are limited and by request — if one of these is your world, put your name in.
Teacher Listening Session
All five cities
Employer Roundtable
Memphis · Date TBD
Cost of Living Roundtable
Nashville · Aug 19
Workforce Council Roundtable
Chattanooga · Sep 2
Housing Builder Roundtable
Builders, lenders, and code officials on why starter homes stopped.
Tri-Cities · Sep 9
“Be Your Own CEO” Workshop
Knoxville · Aug 26 · UT
One form, four reasons
Put a name in.
Tell us about a teacher whose classroom needs a day of work. The story matters more than the form — write it the way you’d tell it out loud.
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Tell us about a first responder unit that’s running hard on very little. Volunteer departments, rural squads, and small-county units are exactly who this is for.
"*" indicates required fields
Seats are limited and we’d rather have the right dozen people than a full room. Tell us which session and what you do.
"*" indicates required fields
Most people on these crews have never built anything. That’s the point — somebody hands you a task you can do and shows you how. Half the job is carrying things and feeding people. An hour helps.
"*" indicates required fields
Who’s doing this
We’d rather just say it.
Build Days is organized and paid for by David Hatley’s campaign for governor. He’s a builder from Carter County, he’ll be on every one of these crews, and yes — he’s running for something.
You will not be asked for money, a vote, or a signature at any of these events. The giveaways are decided by drawing, and check-ins earn entries — so we’ll say the obvious part out loud: a big crowd helps us too. That’s the trade, and we’d rather you hear it from us. You can also enter free without ever setting foot in the place, and we mean it — the official rules spell out both ways in.
We’re telling you all of this up front because the alternative is letting somebody else tell you later.