Nov 9, 2012

Bridgewater Candle Company Takes Four Authorized Dealers To Honduras For Service Project to Fight Orphan Hunger

Four authorized Bridgewater Candle Company dealers selected by Bridgewater Candle Company, a candle and home fragrance manufacturer based in Spartanburg, SC, completed a special brand experience orphanage service project in Honduras last month.

Bridgewater Candle Company awarded the opportunity to go on the all expense paid brand experience to four authorized dealers out of thousands. Through a nomination process four dealers were selected from various parts of the country.

The dealers awarded the opportunity include: Aw Else Boutique located in Greensburg, PA; Savon Cash and Carry Flowers located in Albuquerque, NM; Schuler Books & Music located in Grand Rapids, MI and St. Mary’s Gift Shop located in Enid, OK. The dealers, along with three Grace Direct sales representatives and Home Accents Today’s retail editor Susan Dickenson traveled to Spartanburg, SC on October 18th, 2012 to meet the Bridgewater Candle Company family and tour the manufacturing facility. On October 19th, 2012 Bridgewater Candle Company President, Bob Caldwell, Jr., accompanied the group to Honduras to spend time at the orphanage and complete a service project that included delivering eleven 50-pound duffle bags full of donated supplies. The group returned on October 22nd, 2012.

The dealers along with Bridgewater Candle Company employees collected items such at toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, vitamins, soccer balls and books to donate. The brand experience included a stop at the city of Tegucigalpa’s trash dump, where mounds and mounds of garbage serve as a source of food for many women, men and children that call the dump home and sort through the daily delivered trash for anything consumable. Most of the group aided in passing out bread and fresh water at the trash dump.

The group then traveled to the Good Shepherd Children’s Home, which sits on a 60-acre farm about an hour outside of Tegucigalpa. Presently, 105 children call GSCH home, which is directed by Kelly and Trisha Lawrence. The Bridgewater team wasted no time in greeting and getting to know the children. Days were filled with soccer games, art projects, painting fingernails, piggy back rides and lots of hugs. The service project included priming walls, painting and moving an office.

Bridgewater Candle Company
Established in 1998 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Bridgewater Candle Company quickly became a leader in the candle market with a reputation for its clean burning candles, full fragranced products and passionate sales team. From fresh and clean to warm and cozy, Bridgewater Candle Company’s fragrances capture special moments in life worth savoring…Snapshots of LifeTM. We arecommitted to sharing this warmth and hospitality with the world through our Light a Candle • Feed a ChildTM program. Bridgewater donates a portion of each jar candle sale to Rice BowlsTM, a non-profit whose mission is to feed orphaned children worldwide.

Through the Light a Candle • Feed a Child Campaign, Bridgewater hopes to raise awareness for the global orphan crisis as well as help to fight hunger of orphaned children around the world. As the orphan population grows into the hundred millions and more children die from malnutrition every day, the owners of Bridgewater Candle Company wanted to find a way to educate people about the crisis.

With the support of its authorized dealers, Bridgewater has been able to provide funds for over 735,886 days of food for orphaned children since the program began. Started in 1980, Rice Bowls is a 501c 3 non-profit organization based in Spartanburg, SC. Rice Bowls was recognized from the South Carolina Secretary of State in 2006 with the Angel Award. This honor went to the charity that gave the highest percentage of monetary contributions to the cause with the lowest percentage of overhead administrative costs. Rice Bowls works to fill plastic bowls with change and use that change to provide food for 52 grassroots orphanages around the world.

The Bridgewater brand experience trip to Honduras gave dealers the opportunity to get to know the children at the orphanages they are helping to support. They were able to work alongside Rice Bowls employees and see first-hand how the Light a Candle • Feed a Child program is changing the snapshots of life for children around the world.

“This journey has left an everlasting imprint on my heart,” said Danielle Shaffer, Aw Else Boutique’s owner. “I’ve always had a choice to hear and see, but now I feel and can no longer live in denial.”

“Life changing does not even begin to describe our trip,” said Beth Boyink, Schuler Books & Music’s gift buyer. “I saw so many things that my worst imagination had not prepared me for, but I am a better person for having seen them. Experiencing the love and joy of the orphanage showed me first-hand how the simple act of selling a candle can make a difference in a child’s life. I move forward in my life knowing that awareness calls for responsibility.”

“I not only earned a new respect for myself from doing something that I have never done before but also for Bridgewater Candle Company,” said Lisa Teske, St. Mary’s Gift Shop’s volunteer/chairperson-buyer. “I will be able to sell the jar candles to customers and explain to them first-hand the difference something as simple as a candle can make on the life of a child.”