Tawanda McCrae is a New Jersey native and US Army veteran; she has traveled internationally and across the USA exposing herself to the culture and beliefs of many different people. She currently has a very busy career as an Architectural Revit Designer in New Jersey, and also teaches Autodesk drafting software at Bucks County Community College in PA. In addition to her professional career, she still takes time out to tutor current and former students on the weekends, volunteer one evening a week and sometimes weekends at a local animal shelter and is a dedicated mother to four cat fur babies. She is an avid vegan and supporter of all things vegan and often donates time and money to animal rescue organizations. Tawanda started the Red Queen Foundation as an idea; she wanted to find a way to give back to her community but no longer wanted to simply donate money during the holidays so she began to do research on how to help homeless people in her local community all year round.

During her research, she discovered that the majority of homeless people in NJ consisted of women and girls. She then put herself in their shoes and wanted to find out what would be a constant challenge being a homeless woman. The first thing that came to mind was how unbelievably hard it must be not to have access to sanitary products, pain relievers and cleansing necessities. It is hard enough for women both physically and emotionally, to deal with menstrual cycles when we do have access to those items. She had found her cause and in November 2015 the Red Queen Foundation was born, she created a Face book page, website, flyers, cards and handouts describing what their mission was and how people could get involved. RQF was started to provide homeless women and girls with sanitary products, toiletries and undergarments, but has now expanded to provide many additional services including educational software training, resume writing skills and job coaching.

In Dec 2015 she had her first event called “Pick your Purse” the purpose of the event was to have women donate gently used purses or handbags filled with sanitary products, and new undergarments to provide to local shelters. We also asked for donations to create holiday gift bags for girls, which consisted of sanitary products, undergarments, hair products, toiletries, makeup, pain relievers, cleansing wipes and hand warmers. The first event was a success; we received over 40 purses and enough products to create 150 blessing bags as well as 25 brand new stuffed teddy bears for the children. We divided the donations between four shelters as well as distributed some of the purses to women on the street. It felt so amazing to be able to help people that she decided to do another event in April of 2016 this one was a spring cleaning theme. This time we received enough donations to create 250 blessing bags with sanitary products, clothing, and toiletries. Since that first event, it has ignited the expansion of The Red Queen Foundation into providing educational courses, laptops, and resume building as well as vegan resources. We will continue to grow in order to better serve our community and create a legacy of giving. RQF is starting a revolution of love and it begins now.