KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — During Women’s History Month, we are featuring a diverse group of remarkable women. CareCuts founder Marti Baker is one of our Remarkable Women finalists. The ministry she runs offers much more than haircuts for people who are homeless.
Everyone who comes to CareCuts for help gets a good dose of unconditional love from Baker. She founded the ministry 10 years ago, originally providing haircuts to the homeless, quickly realizing more had to be done.
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“You need to clean them up and cut their hair,” she said. “And so when we cleaned them up and cut their hair, then they had dirty clothes, and then we put the clean clothes on the dirty body, so we wanted to give them a shower, and then their shoes were just so worn with holes in them, so we started giving them shoes.”
Now, there’s a regular Bible study at the CareCuts location near downtown Knoxville, along with donated and sorted clothing, over-the-counter medications, and file cabinets that serve as mailboxes for 500 people who don’t have an address.
“The mailbox made them not a John Doe or a Jane Doe, along with the identification we get them, their driver’s license, their ID, their birth certificate, and social security card,” Baker explained…