KEEP SHINING

Light The Candle for Foster Kids

By Tara Ryazansky

Photos by Julia Guignard

Everyone deserves to have a happy birthday.

Jordan Lacey, the CEO and founder of Light The Candle, came up with the concept for her organization when she was just a teenager.

“When I was 17 years old my cousins were adopted through foster care,” Lacey explains. “The thing that first opened my eyes to the foster care system was having these two new family members.”

At the time, she was a high school student at Mater Dei Prep in Middletown, New Jersey.

“Seeing how much my cousins’ lives changed moving in with my family and getting that positive, loving environment it just sparked the question, ‘How many other children are out there who are like them, and what can I do to help these other kids?’ The biggest thing was just trying to figure out how can we make other kids who are in the foster care system smile.”

Lacey came up with the idea of birthday cards.

“Every child has a birthday,” Lacey says. “A lot of these children might not know their birth story, or they might now know their parents. They might not have anything unique with their name spelled out on it. That can be super special.”

She started a group at her school.

“It was the Light The Candle Club,” Lacey says. “It kind of spread like rapid fire to a nearby high school, to my dance team at the time, then we started talking to some Girl Scout groups, some Boy Scout groups, and some church groups.”

High School Mission

The club, along with volunteers, created personalized birthday cards for foster kids in group homes all over New Jersey and beyond.

“They’re handmade custom cards,” says Lacey, adding that they are for foster kids ages 0-18, and 18-21 for special needs folks who age out of the foster system later. “We encourage all of our volunteers to really take your time on the cards. We ask them to take 30 minutes to an hour per card. We ask them to write a really sweet message in there, something super positive. We ask for quotes. We’ll give them directions, like for example, a girl is turning 15 and she likes gymnastics, so it’s something super special and curated to their interests.”

She also pairs volunteers with foster kids in their same age range when possible. Lacey says, “It’s just so awesome to see that there’s someone who is a similar age to you and all they’re asking for is a simple card. Kids can be so creative when they’re making a card for another kid.”

When Lacey graduated from high school, she didn’t forget her mission.

“I brought it with me to college at Johnson & Wales University,” she says. “Then, when I moved out post-grad to Hoboken, I was able to really spread this idea.”

Now, Light The Candle has over 30 high school chapters.

More Than Cards

“I think that you’re never too young to make a difference. I empower my chapter presidents to make decisions for their chapters. I think it fosters leadership. It brings me back to how I was in high school,” Lacey says. She credits her involvement with the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) as an inspiration for her community involvement. “At first, when I was in high school I used to think maybe I would do this later in life, once I start working or once I had a family, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to do it then and now. The flick of one light can light a whole room.”

Lacey aims to inspire young people. As a black woman, she hopes to inspire others as well. “As a female non-profit owner and also a black non-profit owner, I try to highlight that to make sure that other young women and other people of color know that you can do it too,” Lacey says.

Lacey says that approximately 1000 kids have received birthday cards from Light The Candle. Now, the organization is expanding its mission.

“We created a care closet at one of the foster homes down in southern New Jersey,” Lacey says. “It’s a closet inside one of the group homes where the foster parents or social workers or even the foster kids themselves can come and pick out tampons, shampoo, diapers, a lot of items. We’re happy to be able to do more beyond the need of birthday cards.”

You can help Light The Candle with its mission by donating or volunteering. More information can be found at welightthecandle.org or @welightthecandle on Instagram.

“We would love more donations as we build out our care closets. We would love support. We have a goal to hopefully have them in all of the group homes that we provide cards to,” Lacey says.

Volunteering can be a party too. “Some people want to do a birthday party. We’ve had children who want to donate or do a charitable effort for their birthday. They might fundraise, or they might make cards as their activity.”

As for Lacey’s cousins, they are big fans of her work. “They love it. They’re our source of inspiration,” Lacey says. “This is a family organization as well. My mom is actively involved in it. My dad helps as well. My grandparents are involved too.”

Lacey keeps the candle burning.

“I chose the name Light The Candle because I think a child is like a candle,” Lacey says. “We always sign all of our cards ‘Keep Shining’ to encourage a child that their light will always shine bright no matter what situation that they’re in. We want them to know that we’re there for them. We’re their friend, their partner, and we want them to keep shining and to encourage them.”— 07030

Uptown Brownstone

Victoria Alario greets me at the door of her uptown brownstone.

The place is beautiful with old architectural detail. The archways and high ceilings in her entryway make the space feel grand. Just off the entrance is a comfortable living room with an extensive book collection and items that Alario found in her travels. She says that she visited Italy last summer around the same time that she signed her lease.

She found this apartment while still living in Miami, Florida.

“It was probably 2 AM when it just became listed. I texted the number right away. I knew this apartment would go. When I got in touch with them, there were already more than ten applications in, but I said, ‘I’m getting this apartment. I don’t care what number I am.’ I was like, ‘Whatever you’re getting, I’ll beat it,’” Alario says.

That kind of certainty and decision-making is typical for Alario, who is the host of a podcast called For The Girls that gives advice to young women on topics like dating, friendship, money, and business. Alario’s favorite topic to cover is confidence.

“That’s the main premise of my podcast. The underlying message is always about confidence. It comes naturally to me,” Alario says. “I’ve always been the way that I am. Of course, as girls, we can get emotional and insecure, that’s just our make-up, but I’ve always known that people either love you or hate you, and I don’t like people who don’t like me. A lot of people want people to like them. But I’m just like, ‘If you don’t like me, well, I don’t like you.’ I just don’t really care to please anybody. I’m just me. It’s attracted amazing, high-quality people into my life. It’s also turned off a lot of people because I’m very honest and I’m very outspoken.”

For The Girls attracts all kinds of listeners.

“The girl I’m speaking to doesn’t have an age, she doesn’t have a demographic, she has a very big desire to have more in life. This is for the girls who say, ‘I can have it all,” Alario says that she has listeners of various ages. “I get a lot of women in their 40s or 50s who say, ‘I wish I thought like her at that age.’ I also get a lot of, ‘You’re like a big sister energy.’ from the younger ones. I have a more traditional style with how I see things, but I’m the middle man. I’m the modern woman who speaks her mind but also with that traditional flare when it comes to my values, my morals, and things like that.”

Modern and traditional are also words that could describe Alario’s design aesthetic. She seamlessly pairs antique-style pieces like a white column or a stone fireplace mantle with trendy decor items like pampas grass and figural sculptures.

“My vibe is vintage but also classic,” she says. “Florida was very modern. Everything was very crisp. Everything had to be marble and white,” Alario says that while she likes a neutral look, it was a little bit sterile. “It gives hospital vibes. Some of these things never matched my Florida apartment.”

Alario is originally from Staten Island, so Hoboken isn’t entirely new to her. She used to enjoy nights out here before moving to Florida.

“I was ready to come back up north, but I wasn’t moving back on Staten Island,” she says she wanted something walkable. Hoboken was the perfect place for her. “I love it here. I’m such a homebody. I love just staying in my neighborhood and going for walks and chilling.”

Some favorite spots include Tosti Cafe, Saku, and The Madison Bar & Grill. “I love their fish tacos,” she says of The Madison. She makes her own as well. “I love my kitchen. I like to cook, but I make the same stuff all the time. I love making fish tacos. I also make sauce; regular marinara sauce, or vodka sauce, which is my personal favorite.”

Making sauce is a family tradition for Alario, who is ItalianAmerican. She points out old family photos in several rooms. “That’s my grandmother. She looks like an old movie actress in that photo,” she says.

Off the kitchen is a room that looks like it’s definitely for the girls. The place is a shoe lover’s dream, with heels and boots lined up on display shelves. Alario transformed an extra bedroom into a wardrobe area where she gets ready to start her day. “It’s such a cute little girly area.”

Across from that is her office. “This is where I podcast. I feel like I’m in my own world when I’m in here,” she says, adding that in her first apartment, her desk was in the living room, which wasn’t great for productivity. Having a dedicated workspace was essential for her. Alario also does direct sales for a beauty brand called Monat. She works as a social media influencer and does consulting as well.

She points out some prints on her office wall that she had framed locally at Framing On Washington. She happened to be passing by and wanted to support a local shop. “Azim did a great job,” Alario says.

Alario says that her favorite room in the apartment is her bedroom. She points out a gallery wall of mirrors that she hung herself. “Some are vintage. Some are from Amazon,” she says. Alario also added some molding detail pieces and brightened the place up with a fresh coat of paint.

It’s a good thing the apartment is so spacious because Alario has a new endeavor on the horizon. “I’m in the middle of launching a brand too. I don’t have too much to say yet, because it’s still in the works,” Alario says that it should be ready at the end of the summer or the beginning of fall. “It’s going to be the definition of a small business. Everything is going to operated out of here.”— 07030