The Sandcastles™ Collection
The Sandcastles™ Collection was created from a deeply personal place.
The name is inspired by my mother, Cheryl, and the company she built after retiring from teaching, Sandcastle. Helping people was a major part of who she was. She spent years teaching at Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, helping students who were struggling, and later teaching English as a second language at night. After retirement, she continued helping others through hypnosis and other methods designed to help people work through challenges in their lives.
When my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was given a very short amount of time to live. Instead, she continued fighting for many more years. During that time, she became heavily involved with Relay for Life and continued doing what she had always done—showing up for others.
Years later, my wife Vicky was also diagnosed with breast cancer. Thankfully, her cancer was caught in time, and she fought through treatment successfully. Her experience brought our family into the fight against breast cancer once again and led us to participate in an annual fundraising walk supporting breast cancer research.
The Sandcastles Collection was created to honor both of these women, but its meaning reaches beyond our family.
It is for the people who fought.
The people who survived.
The people still fighting.
The families and friends who stand beside them.
And the people we continue to carry with us even after they are gone.
Each candle in this collection has its own story, its own inspiration, and its own meaning. Some will be directly connected to people we love, while others may represent strength, memory, resilience, comfort, or the moments that stay with us.
Our first candle in the collection, Her Strength, was created in honor of Cheryl and Vicky and represents the compassion, determination, and strength they both showed throughout their lives and their journeys with breast cancer.
For every Her Strength candle sold, $2.00 is donated toward the annual breast cancer walk that Vicky, our son, and I participate in and fundraise for each year.
The Sandcastles Collection is more than a group of candles.
It is a collection of stories.
A collection of memories.
And a reminder that even when life changes around us, the impact someone leaves behind can continue to grow.
Every candle has a story.
Some stories deserve to keep being told.
