Brothers use candle business to raise money for homeless shelters

(Image credit: iStock)

published 23 September 2019

Through their candle business, brothers Austin, Collin, and Ryan Gill are able to earn a little extra money, but they also make big donations to local homeless shelters.

Austin, 8, Collin, 13, and Ryan, 11, live in the Washington, D.C., area, and after thinking about businesses they could start together, they settled on the idea of launching a candle company. They make their all-natural candles at home, doing everything from picking out the scents to putting the wicks in the candles.

The boys — who named their company Fréres Branchiaux, which means "Gill brothers" in French — make about 10 to 15 batches of candles every day, and can often be found selling them at local farmers markets. Once they started turning a profit, it became clear to the brothers that this was an opportunity to do more than just make money for themselves. Now, every month they donate on average $500 to local homeless shelters. "The community gives to us, we want to give back," Ryan Gill told CBS News.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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