Guest post by Mark Gross, The Joyful Giver
I’m running The Joyful Giver from Elmer, New Jersey. The population is about 1,300. We make candles. He has been at it since 1991.
On January 11, 2025, I received a call. Our building is new. Two alarms. They had to bring in trucks from Gloucester County to help put it out. In the morning there was nothing left. Thirty-three years of machinery, raw materials, finished product. It’s gone.
So yes. That happened.
Photo courtesy of Mark Gross.
The first phone call I made was not to the insurance company
I picked up the phone and started calling our staff.
We have a relationship with CODI that goes back 20 years. Seniors with special needs manually blow out all the candles we sell. That’s not a marketing line. That’s how our candles are literally made. These people are part of our work.
I had to tell them that we still have the company. That they still have a job. Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure how we were going to make that fact happen yet, but I said it anyway. We thought we would work out the details later.
It turned out to be the right call.
Current support I did not see coming
Orders started coming in within days. They are not ordinary orders. People are buying candles because they heard about the fire and want to keep us going. Sellers call saying they are not going anywhere and take whatever time we need.
I didn’t expect that. But hindsight makes sense. We spent 30 years releasing a product we were proud of. We load our candles with scent. We don’t skimp on materials. We never had it. So when the building is new, people feel that they have a hand in restoring it.
You can’t fake that kind of loyalty. You have already built it or you haven’t. We were lucky to have it.
Returning to work outside the building
Some people would have spent six months planning their return. Drawing plans, ordering machines, getting everything perfect before making a single candle.
We didn’t do that. We put things together. Space found. I am creative. We started pouring candles though. It was rough and not how we used to work. But we had orders to fulfill and people depended on us.
Customers don’t care if your setup is right. They care if you are still open. We were like that.
What no one tells you about rebuilding, for a long time
The hardest stretch wasn’t the first week. The first week you play with adrenaline, people gather around you and it feels positive.
The hard part is the third month, the fourth month. If you grind every day, costs go through the roof, income is half of what it was, and no one writes about you anymore. That’s where it gets lonely.
I don’t have much wisdom for that part. I just showed up every day and made candles. Some days that’s all you can do.
What I wish I had done before the fire
Real talk. If I could go back:
Write everything down. The way we mixed our perfumes, which suppliers we used, how the machines were set up. All that was always in people’s heads. When the building burned down, we had to rebuild it from scratch. That was cruel.
Read your insurance policy. Don’t skim it. Actually sit down with your agent and ask the tough questions. If the whole place is gone tomorrow, what really happens? You want that answer before you need it.
Build your online sales now, not later. We had a strong retail business but when production slowed down, our website, Amazon, and the TikTok Store kept the money coming in. If those stations had been bigger before the fire we would have been in a much better position during the reconstruction.
Maintain a list of supporting providers. When you need building materials quickly you cannot spend three weeks finding vendors. Prepare words and numbers before you need them.
Photo courtesy of Mark Gross
Where things stand now
It’s early 2026 and to be honest we might be having our best year yet. We ship to thousands of stores nationwide and our CODI team is back doing what they do best.
The fire was the worst that has ever happened to this company. But we came out on the other side. Not because we had a good plan. Because we had good people, a good product, and very generous customers.
If you are facing your crisis right now, all I can say is keep showing up. It’s not fancy advice. But it’s the only advice I have that I know really works.
Mark Gross is the co-owner of A Cheerful Giver, a candle manufacturer based in Elmer, New Jersey. Founded in 1991, A Cheerful Giver produces more than 1,400 perfumes and CODI partners to employ seniors with special needs. Visit acheerfulgiver.com.
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