southsoundmag.com · 117 days ago

This Olympia Candle Brand Is Brightening Homes — and Lives

Two friends who had been helping refugees navigate the challenges of resettlement in Olympia noticed a disheartening pattern: qualified people being turned away from job after job, stuck in a cycle of rejection that had little to do with their abilities. Inspired by a Nashville candle company that employed survivors of trafficking, Karima Bassalé and Rand Roedell taught themselves the craft and launched Relume, now employing two refugees who spent decades in camps before reaching Washington. The response has been unexpectedly strong -- customers nearly doubling the founders' sales projections -- driven partly by what Roedell describes as people wanting to counter a sense of helplessness: "buying a candle is something I can do." For one florist who reached out after reading about Relume, that small act of purchase felt like "real hope" during a discouraging week, a reminder that meaningful change sometimes begins not with grand gestures but with the simple choice to direct our dollars toward someone else's dignity.