Meet Chris
Chris’s life has been marked by hardship, but also by resilience. Born in St. Petersburg, without a stable or supportive family to lean on, he often felt alone and without guidance. “I just learned how to survive,” he recalls. That survival instinct carried him through years of struggle, including time spent caught up in crime and incarceration. Chris often felt like he was navigating life completely on his own, carrying the weight of generational trauma and searching for a place where he belonged.
Chris’s turning point came when he became a father. “I knew the realm of hurt,” he says, “and I didn’t want my kids to go through the same pain I did.” That realization pushed him to seek help, go through counseling, and begin breaking cycles that had shaped his life since childhood.
When his journey led him to Ocala, Chris found Wear Gloves. He began serving and encouraging others.“Helping people gives my life purpose,” Chris explains. “I knew life without purpose, and this works for me.”
Over time, Chris learned healthier ways to respond to challenges and build relationships. He stopped using anger and destructive patterns to cope and instead discovered what it meant to care for others, and himself, in a new way.
Today, Chris is a reliable presence, serving as a security staff member at the Dignity House. He walks alongside others who are working through many of the same struggles he has faced. He encourages others with kindness and without judgment, especially those who feel stuck or hopeless. “You’re not better or worse than anyone else. Some people are just in a different place in life.”
His greatest pride is in raising his children to be successful and compassionate, and in knowing that they carry forward the value of helping others. When asked what advice he would give to someone who feels hopeless, Chris doesn’t hesitate to share that “life gets better when you find purpose and show gratitude. Thanks and appreciation aren’t just words, they’re actions.” Chris knows firsthand that change is possible.