Funeral services for Miss NJ 2013 Cara McCollum: Services planned in Arkansas
Funeral services for Miss New Jersey 2013 Cara McCollum will be held in Forrest City, Ark. — her hometown.
According to her obituary, a celebration of her life will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the First United Methodist Church in Forrest City.
A second memorial service is being planned in New Jersey and will be held at a later date.
Her family asks that memorials be made to The Birthday Book Project, P.O. Box 411, Forrest City, AR 72336, or to a charity of the donor’s choice. The Birthday Book Project provides brand new, gift-wrapped books to kindergarteners through fifth graders for their birthdays to promote the idea that reading is a gift.
McCollum, 24, had made literacy advocacy a mission both during and after her time as Miss New Jersey. She brought the Birthday Book Project to former Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande’s Young Women’s Leadership Institute, a program designed to mentor and guide young women to be leader, Casagrande recently told New Jersey 101.5.
McCollum worked with a group to make sure that first- and second-grade Asbury Park students got books on their birthdays. Casagrande said books for this year have already been delivered, so the program will live on.
McCollum was born Feb. 6, 1992, and was a 2010 graduate and valedictorian of Forrest City High School. She was also named an Arkansas Times Academic All-Star in 2010, according to her obituary.
She moved to New Jersey to attend Princeton University — she was a 2015 graduate, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English, with a concentration in journalism. She joined SNJ Today in July 2015 and worked there as a lead anchor.
In 2013, McCollum was named New Jersey Library Association Champion of the Year, as well as a Daily Points of Light winner for her advocacy of youth literacy, according to her obituary.
An online guestbook and obituary are at stevensfuneralhome.net.
Her demo reel from last year is below:
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