Robertson County Connection
SPRINGFIELD WEATHER

Youth initiative provides special birthday party




Nathaniel Foster at the piano with his new friend Persephone. SUBMITTED

Nathaniel Foster at the piano with his new friend Persephone. SUBMITTED

The Chief David Thompson Youth Initiative recently held a big birthday party of one of its students, Nathaniel Taylor.

The former police chief of Springfield, who retired in December, has long worked with inner city youth from Springfield who attend the Bransford Pride After School Program.

The youth initiative partnered with Cupcakes 24, which provided Nathaniel’s birthday cake. Several friends were able to play paintball, courtesy of Xtreme Paintball in Lebanon. Willow Oak Center for Arts & Learning donated his big birthday gift – a piano.

A party, complete with cotton candy, pizzas and dancing, was held at the Copper Vault, courtesy of the owners, Whitney Lee and Ian Forrester.

“Instead of presents, he asked that people bring him school supplies to donate to needy kids in the community,” Whitney Lee Forrester said. “I guess it was his way of paying it forward.”

Whitney added that Nathaniel made a special friend during the party.

“When we were driving the boys to play paintball, we stopped for gas and the dog was eating out of the dumpster at the gas station,” she said. “We tried to wrangle the dog but she ran behind the gas station into a trailer park. Ian and I continued after it and it ran to a man who told us that the dog belonged to his former roommate, who had moved out a few months ago, and just left the animal. It was living on the streets now, so we picked it up and put it in the very back of the car. She was terrified at first but by the end of the night, Nathaniel wouldn’t leave her side! We actually found a loving home for her in Savannah, Georgia and that’s where the dog (named Persephone) is now.

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