Speaking & Video

Speaking Events

This talk was given by Cara at a TEDx event at Texas State University using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

• See more on the TEDx talk
• Download speaking resources

Other Speaking Events

Panel: Corresponding with Otto Frank - March 2024

In March at the Richland Library in Columbia SC, Cara was part of a panel who discussed their unique perspectives of and relationship to Otto Frank, and some of the key friends and family integral to the Franks.

This program is a partnership of Richland Library, the SC Council on the Holocaust, and the Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina.

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Dent Middle School - February 2024

Watch the video here »

“I so appreciate all of you taking the time to talk to the students. I think that they will always remember it.”
Jill Carroll, MF
National Board Certified Teacher
Eighth Grade Language Arts
The Learning Collaborative @ Dent Middle

University of San Diego

Cara is an amazing storyteller, taking us on a journey through Otto Frank’s eyes. Her insight about the Holocaust, the meeting of Otto Frank and understanding better Otto Frank’s relationship with his daughter, Anne Frank, is powerful, and makes us appreciate the situation on a much deeper level. I highly recommend Cara as a storyteller and guest speaker. I can’t wait to start to read her book! Thanks Cara!

Jodi Waterhouse

MHA, Director, Business and Community Engagement

Would you like Cara to tell the Story-Behind-the-Story after your performance of The Diary of Anne Frank? Audiences are loving her historical perspective along with hearing about her long and loving friendship and correspondence with Otto Frank addressed right after each show.

Mountain Foothills Rotary Club, Colorado

Thank you for a wonderful and inspirational evening of sharing your story. I believe everyone was glued to their seats and we could have heard a pin drop. I will certainly recommend you to our other Evergreen area clubs. I know that they would love the opportunity to meet you and hear your presentation.

Nancy Grant

Program Chair

Speaking at St. Mary’s Academy - February 2024

"Cara is an inspiring speaker and storyteller. She shared her story in such an authentic way, that it really grasped the audience's attention. I found myself completely carried away in her story of Frank's family, and at the same time, hearing the message of "hope". I'm truly impressed by what a strong message can be sent without being "loud". She planted multiple seeds at the beginning of her story, and throughout as well, so it felt very natural when she talked about planting the tree and using that as a metaphor for hope in life."

~ Dr. Yun Chen, St. Mary's Academy, Colorado

Skyping with an Italian classroom - 2020

Shine Summit 2019 - Empowering Girls to Empower One Another

Here is Cara, speaking in a session called, "The Universal Matriarchy of the Feminine: Tapping into our Inner Elephant."

Tattered Cover Book Store, Aspen Grove

I began writing to the father of Anne Frank when I was 12 years old in the San Fernando Valley, California after I had been chosen by a talent scout to audition for the movie, The Diary of Anne Frank. Our correspondence and profound friendship extended well over 18 years when Otto Frank and I finally met in person in Basel, Switzerland where he lived. Our unique relationship became the foundation for much of the perspective I have to this day and is documented in my book, Tree of Hope.

Each of my books and talks carry a theme of the gifts that this extraordinary Holocaust survivor gave me and others worldwide: tenacity and hope in the face of life’s unending challenges. No matter what, we must never give up.

Check Cara's Availability

Please fill out the form below to make an inquiry. A 50% deposit is required to reserve the date with the balance due on the day of the event. Special considerations may be made for non-profit organizations.

I invite you to check out my books and explore the topics that I discuss with groups of all ages:

• Finding and planting hope in the midst of hopelessness
• Making positive daily choices
• Choosing between fear and love
• Letting Mother Nature guide us back to ourselves (book: Strength from Nature)
• The victory of validation
• We are all one — the power of discovering our distinctions and similarities

Workshops

Strength from Nature

In addition to the Strength from Nature talks and readings, I offer separate workshops (indoors or out in Mother Nature) in which I explore the lessons of each Nature Teacher in the book: everything from facing our own strength no matter what we’re hit with, as well as grief, physical and emotional changes, being/feeling stuck, moving forward, relationship challenges, addictions, starting over, losses of all kinds, using obstacles and annoyances to ultimately thrive, and so much more.

We can create a different talk/workshop weekly or bi-monthly or…? featuring each Nature Teacher.

Tree of Hope

I provide a Tree of Hope talk and then follow up with in-depth discussions on everything from sending out positive, transformative ripples of effect—one pebble at a time; to anti-Semitism; bullying; racism; bigotry; facing personal challenges; making positive choices; deciding the importance of what really matters and how we can “un-matter” the baggage we’re carrying; learning from history; taking baby steps towards empowerment, peace and global unity; the power of words, letter writing, journaling, etc.; the importance of learning from pain--growing and ultimately thriving from it and becoming both the teacher and the student: NOT THE VICTIM! And many more possibilities.