Candaece Chatman understands the importance of second chances.
She has experienced incarceration, homelessness and the loss of loved ones. Now, through the nonprofit she founded, Virginia Samuels Cares Inc., Chatman is helping others overcome difficult situations.
The organization is named after her grandmother, Virginia Samuels, a former employee of the City of Leesburg who dedicated her life to helping others before passing away in 2022.
“I have taken on the motto that I turn pain into purpose,” Chatman said. “I lost my grandmother, who was near and dear to me. To lose her during one of the most difficult moments in my life, I was able to turn something that could have been very dark into something powerful where I was able to say, ‘Ok, I’m not going to be bitter, I am going to be better.’
“When I was living in Atlanta and had just gotten out of college, I was living in my car and everything that was in my apartment was in storage,” she said. “I may not have been homeless for a long time, but no one knew. That still was something I was able to overcome. Everything that we do I’m speaking from my own experience, I’m not just out here saying things to motivate someone because I blindly believe it, it’s because I’ve done it.”
The 3rd annual Virginia Samuels Cares Day, the nonprofit’s premier community event, was held May 16 at the Leesburg Resource Center. The event takes place on the Saturday closest Chatman’s grandmother’s birthday — May 18.
The event involved collaborating with 23 community partners, Chatman said, including vendors and sponsors Star 94.5, The Wawa Foundation,the Leesburg Police Department, Yolanda Presley Realtor, The Inflatable King, St. James Episcopal Church, Belk and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
“I wanted to gather people who have been some of our clients and we’ve actually cared for, because I wanted them to be able to walk to us or not have to try to find a ride,” she said. “We walked door to door connecting with people just to to tell them this free event is happening in their area.”
Lt. Shannon Walsh, Leesburg Police Department public information officer, said the department has participated in the Virginia Samuels Cares Day event every year. Walsh said along with networking with other vendors, the department hands out information related to scams and fraud prevention, and promotional items such as sunglasses, cups and stickers.
“(Chatman) also brought a wealth of other vendors and community partners, so any opportunity we have to interact with the community we are going to seize that opportunity,” Walsh said.
Yolanda Presley, of Yolanda Presley Realtor, said she sponsored the event because Chatman’s commitment is undeniable.
“Candaece has truly committed her heart and dedicated her time to helping meet needs throughout the community,” Presley said. “Love is not what it says, but what it does.”
Chatman said one of the grandest instances of the day affirming her mission was helping a family get a bike that was sponsored by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
“I had an inkling in my heart to ask a father walking around with his son if he had a bike and he said ‘no.’ Now some people may say this is cheating, but I had to follow my heart,” Chatman said. “I asked for his ticket and I called out his number after I got back up to do the raffle. The little boy started crying and he ran to the stage and his father started crying.
“Unbeknownst to me, the little boy had been asking for a bike for months. His father couldn’t afford it and he’d even been searching for used bikes,” she said. “Because I paid attention to my heartstrings, I was able to make that happen for them. If nothing else went right that day, that moment alone let me know I’m in alignment with what I’m supposed to be doing.”
As part of the Virginia Samuels Cares new initiative to support lung cancer prevention, the day’s activities also featured free lung cancer screenings by AdventHealth.
“I had an aunt, Mildred Berry, who passed away from lung cancer in 1996,” Chatman said. “She was an aunt I was very close to and one of the first people I can remember passing away in my family. I wanted to make a tribute to her.”
The nonprofit also recently launched its Caleb Gibson Medical Voucher program in honor of Chatman’s brother, who died in December 2025.
The program aims to help people take better care of their health by providing up to $50 per person, assisting with medical prescriptions, co-pays or insurance payment, medical fees and medical supplies.
Chatman said there is still work to do.
Some upcoming initiatives for the nonprofit include a clothing drive from June 1 to July 31, a charity sale at Belk is from June 5-7 and plans to send “Bags of Strength” to stroke patients from November to February.
Earlier this year, Virginia Samuels Cares organized a book drive, collecting hundreds of books to send to incarcerated individuals.
Jamie Goeske, owner of All Booked Up at Colony Plaza, said she donated books after learning about the nonprofit on social media.
“I knew it was a cause I wanted our bookstore to give to,” Goeske said. “We enjoy spreading the gift of reading to others.”
Through the community work she does, Chatman said she wants, “people to take away that we are not entitled to anything and we should be grateful for everything.
“I think that life teaches us every experience can build us to be better or bitter. It depends on the choice we make,” she said. “I really want this organization to spread the love and light of Christ as well as my grandmother’s legacy. To know that just because you had a moment of difficulty, whether because of a stroke, you were in jail, you were homeless, anything that’s a difficulty, if you maximize it, you can change your life and your story can help change someone else.”
To learn about the nonprofit or ways to assist with upcoming initiatives, visit virginiasamuelscares.com.
