02 Aug Humans of Head Start: Ginger

I worked for Head Start 8 years ago for about a year and a half and I loved it, but it was too much with my 3 boys at home. I wanted to be closer to them, so I moved to a job in our small town that we live in. I have been married for 27 ½ years, we have 3 boys. My oldest son is married and they have 3 girls. My middle son has been married about a year. My youngest son would be 19, he passed away almost 3 years ago with brain cancer. It has changed our family forever, but we choose to love big through our grief. So my husband and I are now empty nesters, enjoying life.

I got a new red sports car, just living the dream. I like to have fun. I scrapbook, I love to scrapbook; I started 25 years ago when my first son was born. I actually won the worst scrapbook page one time in a contest. It was a picture of my son but he was laying in my husbands armpit, so I had all this armpit hair, it was awful.

So, lots of crazy things happened in my life, some good and some bad, and I wanted to come back to Head Start. I love it, I love all the things about it. I believe relationships are the most important things in life; and I believe the FA role is based on relationships. I have relationships with the parents, with the kids, with the staff, and then I get to blend all of those together to support the family with whatever it is that they need. That’s what I love about being a Family Advocate. The trust that parents have with me, they feel like they can trust me, that I am on their side, I’m rooting for them and that we want what is best for them; and I’ve had some parents who’ve had to work really really hard to build that, that have never had that, that have never been able to trust anybody in their entire life.

Ginger Bumgarner, Family Advocate

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