NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – A bag with a story and that story starts with Cara Finger.
“It’s taken a village to get to where I am; it’s not just me,” Finger said.
Cara is a mom of three, including to two adopted children.
“I’m an adopted child myself, and I was always keenly aware that I could have ended up in foster care if my awesome parents hadn’t adopted me,” Finger said.
That led Cara and her husband to become foster parents themselves once their children started to grow up. Cara noticed a trend that bothered her
“I ended up calling several people in the foster care community that I had become friends with and said, ‘do your kids come with trash bags?’ and they said, ‘oh yeah, that’s common.’ I said, ‘but that’s not common, kids shouldn’t carry trash bags,’ Finger recalled. “So that’s how I set out to try to find a way to provide bags for kids in foster care.”
That was the beginning of “My bag, My story.” For every one of these bags sold, the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization donates one to a child in foster care in Middle Tennessee, so they don’t have to carry their belongings in a trash bag.
“I just wanted to change that so that kids can keep their dignity and self-worth,” Finger said. “There’s no telling the lives she’s touched,” said Cameron Crawford, a case manager with the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services
He sees first-hand the difference My bag, My story makes.
“You just see them smile ear to ear when we ask them, ‘hey do you need a duffel bag, do you want to come pick one out, do you need a backpack to take to school’?”
The organization has partnered with 11 children’s services agencies in Middle Tennessee, but Finger hopes to take the program nationwide. Putting her vision into action to improve kids’ lives is what makes Cara Finger a remarkable woman.
“I don’t feel like I’m a remarkable woman; I feel like I just found a need and I’m trying to fill it,” Finger said.
When children fill their bags, a piece of their heart and Cara’s, fill up too.
March is Women’s History Month and News 2 is bringing you our Remarkable Women series. Cara Finger was one of four finalists chosen based on nominations from the Middle Tennessee community.
We will share the stories of all of our nominees and at the end of the month, we will reveal our local winner.
She will have a chance to win “Nexstar Woman of the Year” – a nationwide contest hosted by News 2’s parent company and announced on News Nation in April.
