She dreamed, she achieved and followed her heart. After over 16 years in the music business (her grandfather was legendary country music songwriter Curly Putman), Gina decided to carve her own path and pursue her dreams in hair and make-up. She left what she knew, went to Cosmetology school, and in true Gina fashion, she NAILED IT! Gina was building her clientele at BBC Nashville when she unexpectedly passed in August 2019. A friend and classmate had the idea to start a scholarship in Gina's name and the Gina Putman Foundation was born! Our mission is to encourage and empower others to adjust their crown and live their best life, because it’s never too late to follow your dreams. Our purpose is to give back, through the GINArosity (generosity) of others, and award tuition assistance to a deserving recipient pursuing the field of Cosmetology, Aesthetics and Barber trades. We host an event the first Saturday in November appropriately called FriendsGiving. Our goal is to raise money through Silent Auction items and donations. We also choose a different cause, charity or non-profit to donate to every year and ask our attendees to bring items that are needed. Since 2019 we've donated to Champs Toy Chest at Vanderbilt Children's, Lebanon Family Resource Center, Our Sisters Keeper and the Lebanon Veterans. Our first scholarship donation was in 2020 and we awarded TWO monetary donations. Alison received $1500 to begin her career, while Emaline received $250 and was gifted with Gina's shears to continue her career. In 2021 we were able to gift $2500 to Alyssa, who started Cosmetology school in August 2022! November 2023, we awarded Kyle $5000 to attend Barber school! As of February 2022, we are officially a 501c3 and our ultimate goal is to be able to award and provide FULL tuition scholarship to a deserving recipient pursuing their dreams. To know Gina was to love her, but you didn't have to know her to be a part of our annual FriendsGiving event. Gina was an all-inclusive friend. She may have had different circles of friends, but she would bring those groups together, which is what we are trying to do! If you know someone that would like to apply for our yearly scholarship that is awarded at our FriendsGiving event in November, have them submit a short video (3-5 min) telling how the awarded money would help them, how they intend to leave their mark in the field and why they are choosing to go into aesthetics, cosmetology or barber school, along with anything else they would like to add, to the Foundation email at [email protected].
