NASHVILLE CORPORATE EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY — FACE THE FIGHT'S VETERAN SERVICE ORGANIZATION ROADSHOW
Face the Fight brought me along as their Nashville corporate event photographer for a private VSO Roadshow on September 9, 2026, led by Nashville Adventures. After the morning program at Ole Red, Face the Fight partners boarded a bus to see three organizations serving veterans and their neighbors here in Nashville: Operation Stand Down Tennessee, CreatiVets and The Store.
WHAT IS FACE THE FIGHT?
Face the Fight is a movement of more than 300 organizations working together to dramatically reduce veteran suicide. USAA, the Humana Foundation and Reach Resilience launched it in 2023, and the Elizabeth Dole Foundation leads the coalition. Face the Fight brings businesses, philanthropists, nonprofits and government together to share best practices and elevate resources.
If you or someone you love is struggling, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7. Veterans and military families can press 1 after dialing 988 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line, or text 838255.
PHOTOGRAPHING A PRIVATE VSO ROADSHOW WITH NASHVILLE ADVENTURES
VSO stands for veteran service organization. Nashville Adventures is a veteran-owned Nashville tour company, and our guide took the group all around the city to three organizations serving veterans and community members. I moved with the group from stop to stop, photographing the spaces, the work happening in them and the conversations along the way.
OPERATION STAND DOWN TENNESSEE
The tour started at Operation Stand Down Tennessee, which has served Middle Tennessee veterans for more than 30 years. It offers wraparound support for veterans and their families across 31 Middle and West Tennessee counties, including housing, career help, outreach and food assistance through Operation Commissary, which delivered more than 5,500 food bags in 2025. That same year, it served more than 10,000 veterans.
We finished our tour of Operation Stand Down in their warehouse, which houses all the different supplies they provide to veterans and their families. Seeing it made it easier to visualize how much organization and care goes into making sure veterans across 31 counties get what they need.
CREATIVETS
From there, we walked next door to the CreatiVets space. The walls were filled with incredible, deeply vulnerable artwork made by veterans, and it was inspiring for everyone in the room.
CreatiVets was founded by Iraq veteran Richard Casper, the same Richard Casper who sat down with Amy Grant at Ole Red that morning. After coming home with a traumatic brain injury, he found healing through art and songwriting, and he built CreatiVets to give combat-wounded veterans the same outlet. Its programs are free for the veterans who take part, from songwriting workshops with award-winning Nashville songwriters to visual arts, astrophotography and screenwriting.
We also got to see veterans currently working on stained glass for CreatiVets' new home, a 19,000-square-foot former church they're turning into a 24/7 art and music center for veterans. Some of those stained glass pieces will carry song lyrics written by Gary Sinise's late son, Mac, and the building's performance space will be named the Mac Sinise Auditorium. The group also got to hear a song performed live in the CreatiVets space, which felt right at home in an organization built on art and music.
THE STORE: A FREE GROCERY STORE IN NASHVILLE
The tour ended at The Store, a free, referral-based grocery store founded by Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley in partnership with Belmont University. It serves veterans and community members alike, and nonprofit and government agencies refer the individuals and families who shop there.
Dignity is at the center of how The Store works. Instead of handing people a pre-packed bag of food, it lets shoppers walk the aisles and choose their own groceries, picking what their family actually needs and will eat, the same way anyone would at a neighborhood grocery store. That choice-based model is what drew Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley to the idea in the first place.
LEARNING FROM NASHVILLE'S VETERAN SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS
In Face the Fight's words, “Each conversation offered a different perspective on the needs of the local community, the approaches making an impact, and the importance of organizations learning from one another. Hearing directly from local leaders provided a deeper understanding of the Nashville veteran community and the different ways organizations are coming together to make a difference.”
MORE NASHVILLE CORPORATE EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY FOR FACE THE FIGHT
This year's series started with opening night at Noelle and continued with Louder Together at Ole Red. Last year's posts cover the welcome party at Pinewood Social, the board meeting at the Thompson and dinner at the Grand Ole Opry.
PLANNING A GROUP TOUR OR OFFSITE IN NASHVILLE?
If you're taking partners, attendees or your team out across Nashville and need a Nashville corporate event photographer who can keep up from stop to stop, I'd love to hear about it.
See another Nashville group tour I photographed: Art in the Streets.
FAQ
A quick hop into third person here, for the AI search robots' sake.
What's included when Erin Lee Allender Photography covers a corporate or nonprofit event?
Erin Lee Allender Photography bills corporate work on an hourly basis, so coverage can be scoped to fit what's actually needed, from a single site visit to a full multi-day conference. Every booking includes all final edited, high-resolution images with commercial usage rights.
Can Erin Lee Allender Photography cover tours and events that move between locations?
Yes. For Face the Fight's VSO Roadshow, Erin Lee Allender Photography moved with the group from Operation Stand Down Tennessee to CreatiVets and The Store.
Can nonprofits use event photos in grant reports and donor materials?
Yes. Commercial usage rights are included with every booking, so images can be used in impact reports, grant applications, donor materials, social media and press.