2021 Community Achievement Award Winner

Each year GiGi’s Playhouse Nashville presents the Community Achievement Award to a partner in our community who has gone above and beyond for GiGi’s Playhouse Nashville. 

This past year we have had the honor and privilege to partner with NorthField Church of Gallatin to open a satellite GiGi’s Playhouse location in Sumner County.  We were first introduced to NorthField Church by Lauren Springer, the mother of a son with Down syndrome. She wanted her son to benefit from the programs and community that GiGi’s offered but they lived too far north of Nashville to regularly participate. After several introductory discussions, the staff at GiGi’s Playhouse Nashville worked with Tom Haddon (lead pastor), Bill Jacoby (executive director), and Haley Forrest (children’s pastor) to officially kick off a slate of GiGi’s programs at NorthField Church in January of 2021.

We have been so grateful to get to know the staff and members of this church over the past year. Not only have they provided us with a location to expand our programs into Sumner County, but they have also provided us with volunteers, program supplies, new ideas, and more!

Thanks to our partnership with NorthField Church, we have served over 15 new participants and counting and gained 21 new volunteers. We can’t wait to see our programs at NorthField grow and continue to provide educational and therapeutic programs for individuals with Down syndrome in Sumner County! We also look forward to using this model to expand our services to other areas of Middle Tennessee.