DOOR COUNTY, Wis. (NewsNation) — A candle company in Wisconsin is using its roots in Ukraine to raise money for the war-torn country as Russia’s invasion drags into winter.
Christiana Trapani, owner of the Door County Candle Company, said in the beginning, they were hoping to raise about $5,000.
Between media coverage and word-of-mouth, the candle company in the shoreline vacation area of Wisconsin has raised more than $800,000.
“It’s been a really great way to take something that’s been terrible and try to help in our in our own little way,” Trapani said.
When the invasion first began, Trapani was on the phone with relatives in Ukraine. “They were crying and they were scared,” said Trapani. “My grandma was crying and reliving war when she was a kid.”
That was when Trapani said she wanted to use her “anger and do something with it.”
The money raised by the Door County Candle Company heads to a nonprofit in New York City, Razom for Ukraine. From there, Razom (Ukrainian for “together”) brings supplies and equipment to Poland, and then on to Ukraine.
But true to form, the candle company is also bringing light to Ukraine.
“Whenever someone buys one of our Ukraine candles, we are sending a tin candle to Ukraine with Razom,” Trapani said.
There are an estimated 1.5 million Ukrainians without power. Trapani hopes the 2,000 candles her business is sending over is just the start.
On Friday, a Ukrainian official estimated his country’s battle losses at up to 13,000 troops.
