Restoring hope, one family at a time.

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01 — Who we are

Showing up for families in their hardest season.

The Cotton Foundation was founded in Houston in 2006 by Pete Bell and James Scaife on a simple belief: when a family is going through the worst it will ever face, someone should show up.

For twenty years that has meant trailers of supplies after a hurricane, partnerships in more than a hundred communities, and now Taylor’s Place, a private sanctuary in Columbus, Texas, where a family facing terminal illness gets a few days together that belong only to them.

About the Foundation Meet the board
  • 20yrsServing through the Cotton Foundation family
  • $3.4M+In aid awardedIncluding in-kind support.
  • $760,000Raised at CrawFest 2025
  • 150+Community partners alongside us
  • 100+Communities served across the country
Taylor’s Place

A few days that belong to the family.

Thirty acres in Columbus, Texas, with a house, a pond, a pool, and nowhere to be. Taylor’s Place welcomes families facing terminal illness one at a time, with the whole property to themselves.

Explore Taylor’s Place Request a visit
  • The front of the Taylor’s Place house, a white farmhouse-style building with the name over the porch
  • The backyard pool and loungers, with the basketball court beyond
  • Two horses at the Taylor’s Place gate
  • The basketball court from above, painted blue with the Taylor’s Place mark at center court
The 48-foot Restoring Hope trailer parked behind pallets of bottled water and stacked cases of diapers
The Restoring Hope trailer in Lake Charles, Louisiana, after Hurricane Laura.
Impact in action

Diaper Drive

One week after Hurricane Laura devastated the Lake Charles area, the 48′ Restoring Hope trailer arrived with diapering supplies. Set up in a church parking lot, it met a steady stream of families who came by to stock up. A second distribution followed the next month at a food distribution site in Lake Charles.

  • 61,716Diapers distributed
  • 4Pallets of baby wipes
  • 2Distribution sites, West Lake & Lake Charles, LA
Support the next response
  • A balloon arch spelling CrawFest in gold letters at the entrance
  • A musician singing and playing acoustic guitar on the CrawFest stage
  • Three people on stage with their arms in the air, cheering with the crowd at dusk
  • Five volunteers and a chocolate Labrador in an orange bandana sitting together on the stage
CrawFest

Crawfish for a cause.

Our annual fundraiser: live music, a live auction, thousands of pounds of crawfish, and a community that shows up for the families we serve. CrawFest 2025 raised $760,000 for Taylor’s Place.

Explore CrawFest Sponsor CrawFest
  • Pete Bell, co-founder and Chairman of the Board of the Cotton Foundation
    Pete Bell Co-Founder & Chairman of the Board
  • James Scaife, co-founder and President of the Board of the Cotton Foundation
    James Scaife Co-Founder & President of the Board
The founders

Founded on the belief that time together matters most.

Time together is the one thing that cannot be replaced.

Pete

Pete Bell, founder of Cotton Holdings, and James Scaife, his longtime partner, co-founded the Cotton Foundation in 2006 with the belief that the success of a business should create opportunities to serve others. Today Pete chairs the board, James serves as its president, and together they are leading the Foundation’s next chapter through Taylor’s Place.

Board of Directors
Together, we make it happen

Help us welcome the next family to Taylor’s Place.

Every gift keeps the lights on at Taylor’s Place and gives a family a few days they get to keep.

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