The effort is the latest in a series of “Support a Cause” fundraising candles that started with the company’s internationally known Ukraine Candles.
Watch a daring rescue from Texas flooding
Video captured the tense moments as volunteers banded together to pull a woman to safety using ropes amid the tragic flooding in Texas.
Relief is needed for those affected by the devastating and deadly flash flooding that washed over parts of central Texas July 4 and for the emergency workers trying the help, and Door County Candle Co. once again is doing what it can.
The newest fundraising sale by the Carlsville-based candle making company is a “Texas Flood Relief” candle, with 100% of profits going to the American Red Cross for its relief efforts in that area. According to the Red Cross website, those efforts include supporting emergency shelters, which serve not just as a refuge but also a place to charge phones and devices and possibly reconnect family members, and by providing food, relief supplies and other critical resources like financial and family travel assistance.
The candle is white in a clear glass jar and carries Door County Candle’s proprietary vanilla scent. It was launched July 6 and generated more than $5,500 in funds for the Red Cross in its first four days, company co-owner Christiana Trapani said to the Advocate.
“The response has been very strong,” Trapani said. “A ton of people have reached out, and a lot of people in Texas have contacted us, thanking us for reaching out.”
The floods happened after a large storm fueled by unusually high moisture in the atmosphere stalled over central Texas and dumped several inches of rain an hour for several hours, causing the Guadalupe River to suddenly rise from 3 to 30 feet and turn into raging, racing torrents of water. As of July 10, more than 120 people are confirmed dead with another 150-plus missing as search efforts continue.
The Texas Flood Relief candle is the latest in a series of “Support a Cause” candles created by Door County Candle to raise funds for specific needs, many to help fund relief work in places hammered by natural disasters.
The series was started by Trapani and her co-owner and husband, Nic, a little more than a year after the company began making and selling blue-and-yellow Ukraine Candles in February of 2022 to raise funds for emergency relief help in Ukraine shortly after that country was inveded by Russia in a war that continues. The results were way beyond what Trapani, a second-generation Ukrainian-American, hoped to accomplish, with more than $1 million raised in the first year. (Those candles remain available.)
Since the Ukraine Candle, the company has made candles for numerous charitable and relief causes. Some have been smaller and more localized or regionalized, but others are for devastating events or natural disasters in America and around the world. The most recent “Support a Cause” effort before the Texas candle is the “Golden State California Wildfire Relief” candle the company launched in January for Red Cross for relief efforts in the metropolitan Los Angeles area devastated by wildfires.
Other “Support a Cause” candles for national or international causes include a Beachside Candle from 2022 that raised more than $14,300 for people on the Gulf Coast of Florida affected by Hurricane Ian, a Hope Candle in 2023 that raised more than $8,100 for UNICEF to provide humanitarian and developmental aid to children in areas of Turkey and Syria devastated by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, and the Liliko’i Candle launched in 2023 that raised more than $60,000 for relief efforts on the Hawaiian island of Maui following the wildfires there that virtually wiped out the historic town of Lahaina and killed more than 100 people.
To order or for more information, visit the Door County Candle store, 5789 State 42, Sturgeon Bay; call 920-746-2125; or visit doorcountycandle.com or facebook.com/DoorCountyCandleCompany.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@gannett.com.
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