The Community Behind Our First Summer: Thank You to Those Who Supported PILLAR

PILLAR’s first summer program may have been created for our youth, but it was never something we accomplished alone. Behind the activities, lessons, field trips, meals, and experiences were community organizations and businesses that were willing to contribute something toward what we were building.

Sometimes support looked like a place to gather. Sometimes it looked like lunch for our kids. Sometimes it was a reward that made a lesson on investing feel real. And sometimes it was an opportunity that we are saving for another adventure later this year.

As we reflect on our first summer, we want to pause and recognize the sponsors and community supporters who helped us along the way.

Thank You to Assembly of Saints

One of the most important things any youth program needs is simply a place where children can come together safely to learn, talk, create, and grow.

We are incredibly grateful to Assembly of Saints for allowing PILLAR to use their space for our Giveaway.

Thank You to Hy-Vee

We also want to thank Hy-Vee for providing gift cards that helped PILLAR purchase lunch for our youth during our summer program.

It may seem like a small part of a much larger program, but anyone who has worked with children knows one universal truth: learning goes a whole lot better when everybody has eaten! More importantly, providing meals is another expense that youth programs have to account for. That support allowed us to focus our resources elsewhere while making sure our children could enjoy lunch together. We sincerely appreciate Hy-Vee's contribution to our first summer.

Thank You to Amazing Pizza Machine

Our financial literacy and entrepreneurship experience gave our youth an opportunity to do much more than listen to someone talk about money. They became entrepreneurs themselves. The students developed their own inventions and were challenged to pitch them to us as if they were appearing on Shark Tank. We didn't make it easy, either. They had to explain their products, sell their ideas, answer questions, and convince us that their inventions deserved an investment. The winning group consisted of three talented young innovators, each bringing a completely different idea to the table. Nasru Aden created the CCH (Color-Changing Hijab), Ayatullah Mohamud developed the Calm-Mi Toy, designed to help support neurodivergent children with calming and comfort, and Luqman Aden invented an Automatic Water Planter to make caring for plants easier. Their creativity, confidence, and ability to pitch their ideas impressed us, and thanks to the generosity of Amazing Pizza Machine, each of our three winners received a ticket to celebrate a job well done.

Those three tickets became the perfect ending to the lesson. We had spent time talking about investments, ownership, business, and the value of a good idea. Now we had an opportunity to demonstrate that concept in a way they could actually experience: they worked on an idea, presented it well, and someone chose to invest in their effort.

Thank you, Amazing Pizza Machine, for helping us celebrate our three young entrepreneurs.

We would also like to extend our sincere appreciation to Haji Salad, owner of Patron Living, for generously allowing PILLAR to use his space for our summer programming and for personally stepping in as a presenter during Financial Literacy Day. His support went beyond providing a place for our students to gather-he shared his time, knowledge, and real-world experience with our youth, helping make conversations about finances, entrepreneurship, ownership, and building for the future feel more tangible. He also provided lunch for our youth.

We are equally grateful to Musa Jama, owner of Palmcare AI, for bringing his expertise in the digital and financial spaces to our students during Financial Literacy Day. Having professionals from our own community speak directly with young people is incredibly valuable. Our students were able to hear firsthand about technology, finance, entrepreneurship, and the opportunities that exist in an increasingly digital world. We thank Musa for taking the time to pour his knowledge into the next generation and for helping our youth see that these spaces are not beyond their reach-they are spaces they can one day help lead.

We are also grateful to Lauritzen Gardens for providing three complimentary admissions.

Ultimately, because our participating group was larger than three people and we wanted our youth to experience the outing together, we were not able to utilize the complimentary admissions. Still, generosity deserves acknowledgment.

We appreciate Lauritzen Gardens for being willing to extend an opportunity to PILLAR, and we are grateful to have community institutions that recognize the value of exposing young people to nature, learning, and experiences beyond the classroom.

And One Adventure Is Still Waiting…

Our summer may be ending, but one experience is still waiting for our PILLAR youth.

A special thank-you goes to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium for providing a special pass that we plan to use for a PILLAR youth zoo experience in September.

We are excited about giving our young people another opportunity to explore, learn, ask questions, and simply enjoy being together. After all, education doesn't always happen with a notebook in front of you. Sometimes the classroom is a library. Sometimes it is a garden. Sometimes it is a university campus. And sometimes it has elephants.

Thank You for Believing in What We're Building

As a growing nonprofit, contributions like these matter tremendously to PILLAR.

Our first summer wasn't built on an enormous budget or unlimited resources. It was built through creativity, determination, community support, and people willing to say, “Here's what we can contribute.”

That is something we don't take for granted.

To Assembly of Saints, Hy-Vee, Amazing Pizza Machine, Lauritzen Gardens, and Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium: thank you.

Thank you for contributing space, meals, incentives, admissions, and experiences. Thank you for helping us stretch our resources further. Most importantly, thank you for helping us create opportunities for our youth.

PILLAR stands for Providing Integrity, Lifelong Learning, Access & Resilience. This summer reminded us that the word access is not something one organization can create alone. It takes a community willing to open doors. You helped open some of those doors. And from all of us at PILLAR INC, we are deeply grateful.