Door County Candle Co. once again is stepping up to help people in need, but this time it’s for people close by.
The Carlsville-based candle making company began producing and selling a “Wisconsin Strong” fundraising candle July 28 for relief efforts in Appleton, Menasha and the Fox Valley, which were devastated July 27 by an EF-3 tornado that destroyed numerous homes and businesses in its path. More than 60 people reported injuries from the storm but no deaths are reported as of July 29.
The 16-ounce candle is a creamy white color in a clear glass jar and carries Door County Candle’s proprietary warm vanilla scent. All of the profits from sales of the candle will go to relief organizations working in the area, and company co-owner Christiana Trapani said the fundraiser generated more than $5,000 in less than a day and a half, and more than $6,900 by July 30.
Trapani said she knows many people who live in the Fox Valley from her time as an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and when she and her husband and company co-owner, Nic, saw the damages wreaked by the tornado, she knew they needed to act.
“I went to Facebook and saw so many pictures and videos, so much destruction,” she said. “That night (of the 27th), I was watching TV with Nic, and we saw the damage, and we looked at each other and said, ‘We need to launch a candle now.’ The next morning, we started production.”
Trapani said she and Nic are talking with several of the relief organizations working in the area before deciding which one, or ones, they’ll designate for their donations. The most important thing for her is that the funds go to organizations providing direct help.
The tornado was part of a powerful line of thunderstorms that generated straightline wind gusts of up to 70 mph and dumped several inches of rain and hail as large as baseballs in parts of Wisconsin.
According to the National Weather Service, the tornado formed at about 11:56 a.m. July 27 on the west side of Appleton, touched down near Wisconsin Avenue, then tracked south through the Town of Fox Crossing and Menasha, growing stronger along the way. It dissipated after heading out over Lake Winnebago, lasting for 26 minutes, until 12:22 p.m.
Based on the damages it found in its investigation, the weather service classified the tornado as an EF-3. That indicates wind speeds of 136 to 165 mph, with possible damages including demolished mobile homes, stories of frame houses destroyed, stripped roofs and exterior walls from well-built buildings, uprooting of large trees and vehicles blown over or thrown. The weather service said the path of destruction was as wide as 1,500 yards.
The Wisconsin Strong 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, although it’s been just more than a year since the most recent one was launched.
The series was started by the Trapanis about a year after the company began making and selling blue-and-yellow Ukraine Candles in February 2022 to raise funds for emergency relief help in Ukraine shortly after that country was invaded 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” efforts were the “Golden State California Wildfire Relief” candle the company launched in January 2025 for Red Cross relief efforts in the metropolitan Los Angeles area devastated by wildfires and the “Texas Flood Relief” candles begun a couple of days after the July 4, 2025, floods that swamped central Texas and left more than 130 people dead, including 27 at a young girls campground.
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 the “Door County Candle Company” Facebook page.
Go salmon fishing to help tornado victims
Another Door County business trying to help tornado relief efforts in the Fox Valley is Reel Impressions Sportfishing Charters of Sturgeon Bay.
The business launched a 48-hour auction on its Facebook page for a six-hour salmon fishing charter for up to six people, with all funds going to victims of the storm. The charter can be taken in 2026 or 2027.
Since posting the auction on its Facebook page, Greystone Castle bar and grill in Sturgeon Bay added to the prize with a $200 credit toward lunch or dinner there and Fish Hawk Electronics is adding its TD Connect water temperature and depth sensor.
Bidding ended at 4 p.m. July 30. Bids started at $500, with the high bid being $1,800. The money was planned to be handed to “a family in need” who was in “the destruction zone” on Aug. 3. For more information, visit facebook.com/reelimpressionfishing.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@usatodayco.com.
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(This story was updated to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Door County businesses use candles, salmon fishing for tornado relief
Reporting by Christopher Clough, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Christopher Clough, Green Bay Press-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
