Owner / Age 29
Door County Candle Company
Christiana Trapani had been the new owner of Door County Candle Co. for less than a year when Ukraine fell under Russian attack on Feb. 24, 2022. Trapani, who is a second-generation Ukrainian American, and her husband, Nic, set a goal to raise $5,000 for Ukraine.
With the help of a team of community volunteers, they’ve now raised more than $1 million selling their blue and yellow candle for the organization Razom for Ukraine. “This was the start of our business transforming into a philanthropic candle company,” says Trapani, who is from Egg Harbor and took her first job in the box office of Northern Sky Theater.
One of the biggest issues for the region is the availability of affordable housing, Trapani says. “As wonderful as the tourism is for local businesses, it does cause an issue with affordable housing,” she says, which makes it difficult for those businesses to hire help.
In the next decade, Trapani hopes to raise more than $10 million from the company’s candles for various nonprofits and causes. “We all have the power and ability to make a change, and being able to make a difference and an impact through our candles is my biggest and proudest professional accomplishment so far,” she says.
Because of their work raising funds for Ukraine, Trapani and her husband were invited to appear on NBC-TV’s trivia game show “The Wall” and won $1.3 million, which they plan to invest in their business to expand their philanthropy efforts.
