Chrysalis is led by Vanessa’s perseverance, faith, and fortitude ― and she really defines those traits ― because those are attributes she had to learn while struggling in her youth, just like some of the people she helps today. For her, the world became too much as she struggled as a young single mom of two decades ago.
Today, Vanessa is a confident leader in the community as she runs the nonprofit founded in her husband’s church, Sanctuary Covenant Christian Fellowship on Park Avenue, just a block off Main Street in Hamilton. She experienced a violent background growing up and never having met her biological father.
After enrolling at Bowling Green State University, Vanessa, as she said, “lost her mind” and called herself “a crazy college student,” admitting she “didn’t know what I was doing” when dating, which led to a bad relationship and becoming a single mother.
She was at her wit’s end.
“Actually, I was suicidal,” Vanessa admitted. “I just kind of said, ‘Okay, I quit. I’m tired of this.’”
That’s when, though, the Toledo native went back to church hoping to find solace in faith, and within a month or two, her future husband, Frederick, was figuratively knocking at her door.
“I actually didn’t want to be bothered with him because, you know, I’d had my fill with guys (at that time),” she said.
But Vanessa is glad he bothered her as “he turned out to be the most exceptional individual.
“Not only did he marry me, but he took both of my daughters and raised them as his own,” she said, adding their family of four became a family of six when the McQueens had two children of their own.
Life can already kick a person when they’re struggling, and Vanessa believes people shouldn’t add to those problems. But that happened to her when she was on welfare when she was trying to figure out her life, and she knows what it’s like to have a bad social worker. Hers in northern Ohio made her cry, and Vanessa described her as “so nasty and rude.”
She learned from that and now goes out of her way to help people because that’s how it’s supposed to work. Right?
Before Chrysalis, she had gone into social services, helping with special needs adoptions as Fredrick was pastoring in Butler County. They eventually started the church, and she stopped working in social services but still wanted to help. She knew what it was like to be hungry. What it was like forgoing Christmas gifts in order to pay bills.
“I just didn’t want another child to know what that feels like,” Vanessa said, which is why she founded Chrysalis. “I know I can’t give every child clothes, I can’t give every child diapers, but I will help as many as we can, and the results have been astounding.”
Her agency has recently experienced a “huge boom” where families who are desperate for diapers are showing up due to the rising prices and costs. Chrysalis is a nonprofit that primarily provides diapers to families but also provides clothing for young children and supplies, like wipes. However, they too are impacted by the economy, needing to relocate back to the Sanctuary Covenant Christian Fellowship, where Frederick is the senior pastor.
Maybe that’s where they need to be. It’s the type of place where she found direction in her life.
No matter where the agency is, though, the people Vanessa and her team help will see the kindness she’s known for because of her perseverance, faith, and fortitude.
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