The owner of a downtown business is planning a trip to Haiti to deliver needed supplies to starving people.
Alison Springs, owner of Green Springs on Ram Cat Alley in Seneca, was selected as one of four Bridgewater Candle dealers to spend time visiting orphanages in Haiti and complete a service project.
“Bridgewater is this wonderful South Carolina value-based company, and for every jar candle they sell, they donate enough money through a program called Rice Bowls to feed a child for a day,” Springs said. “It's really amazing because they have done this without raising their prices, and there is no finite amount. … They are doing this without an end in sight, and it benefits children worldwide.”
Started in 1980, Rice Bowls is a nonprofit organization based in Spartanburg. The group works to fill plastic bowls with change and in turn use that money to provide food for 42 grassroots orphanages around the world. Bridgewater has helped Rice Bowls provide more than 340,000 days worth of food for orphaned children since June 2010.
The Bridgewater Candle Co., established in 1997, offered thousands of its authorized dealers the chance to win an all-expenses-paid experience in Haiti. Through a nomination and written process, four authorized dealers were awarded the opportunity.
“I can't believe I was chosen because I have only sold the Bridgewater Candles for about two years, since I opened my store,” Springs said.
Bridgewater is the only brand of candles she sells, in part because some of the proceeds go to Rice Bowls, she said.
Springs plans to travel to Spartanburg on Sept. 29 to meet the Bridgewater Candle family and tour the manufacturing facility. On Sept. 30, the group will travel to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
“I'm going to Haiti to see the children and meet the wonderful people promoting this company and help them,” Springs said. “My car is packed with vitamins, fever reducer and paper.”
She added, “I'm really happy to be able to help Bridgewater promote their candles. “I love it because it is promoting South Carolina jobs; let's get this state working and helping children worldwide at the same time.”
The trip to Haiti will allow Bridgewater dealers the opportunity to get to know the children at the orphanages they are helping to support. They will work alongside Rice Bowls employees and see firsthand how Bridgewater's Light a Candle, Feed a Child program is changing the lives of children around the world.
Springs is offering the community a chance to donate medicine and supplies to be distributed on her trip to Haiti.
“The easiest way to give is purchase a Bridgewater Candle, because for every jar candle sold, it feeds a child for a day,” Springs said. “The community can donate items like construction paper, fever reducer, adult vitamins or children's chewable vitamins, the non-gummy type because the gummies melt in Haiti. I will be happy to take it down to Haiti.”
Donations need to be dropped off at the Green Springs store in Seneca before Sept. 28.
Click here to watch News Channel 7's Coverage of the Story.
Article courtesy of Anderson Independent Mail and Chad Dorsett - WSNW
CLICK HERE to visit http://ricebowls.org/