Lubbock woman creates travel bags for children in foster care.

LUBBOCK, Texas (KSBD) – Lubbock children in foster care will soon be getting new luxury bags called Immersion Bags. Natalie Craig used to work with South Plains CASA. The idea came to Craig at a luncheon with the boy he was sharing his life story with.

“It wasn’t until CPS came and picked him up, that’s when he heard it, and he said it wasn’t until he put the toys in a bag that looked like garbage,” Craig said.

That’s when Natalie decided to create something better than trash bags. A foundation gave her $5,000 to buy backpacks for children in shelters, and she tried every Google search for six months.

“All the things you saw on the internet were girly, little boy things – it was nothing they wanted to carry,” says Craig.

She was told to release the money, and the design of the bag would come to her.

“I thought I was dreaming, but I actually woke up in my office and I had a piece of paper, and it was all drawn,” Craig said. “I did it in the middle of the night, but it was cool, and that’s how we did it.”

The design on that paper turned into a bag that would make a real difference in these children’s lives.

Craig spent a lot of time figuring out exactly what you were looking for.

“I talked to counselors, I talked to kids, I talked to the community about what these kids need and they need something to put everything in,” Craig said.

Natalie calls it an immersion bag. Where pockets abound, there’s a built-in bag for shoes, clothes and dirty clothes. One of the side pockets is for food because Craig said kids used to get bullied for taking brown bag lunches at home.

“They weren’t going to take the food home … they just threw it away, and now they have this bag, and they can put their food in here and take it home,” Craig said of the story. She was almost in tears.

On January 17, 500 bags will arrive in Lubbock to be placed in boutiques to buy Lubbockites. Every bag you buy gives a bag to one of these kids.

“We sell these and then every time one is sold, the money is left over so we can order another 500, 500 of which are just given to the kids,” Craig said.

The bags will sell for $299 each, but will be free for kids. If you can’t afford a bag, you can donate directly to Craig’s mission on her Venmo @nycregimen.

Copyright 2022 KCBD. all rights reserved.