Alene Candles, a full-service contract and private-label candle and home fragrance manufacturer based in Milford, NH, was among a group of central Ohio companies and leaders to receive a 2025 Pillar Award for Community Service.
The Medical Mutual 2025 Pillar Awards for Community Service honors organizations and individuals that make a difference in their communities through volunteering, charitable giving and more. Alene Candles was chosen as a recipient for its New Americans Welcome Program, which supported Columbus, Ohio-area nonprofits, as well as its 30-year history of community service and giving. Its Welcome Program, which launched in 2023, provided backpacks filled with practical and personal care items to its nonprofit partners to help families settle-in and feel welcome in the Greater Columbus community.
“As employers, our first and foremost priority must be people,” said Alene Candles President & CEO Raj Chary. “Whether it’s lifting someone up with a good-paying job that gives them a future, or supporting community-based organizations, we’re in a tremendous position to give people hope and inspire them to pay it forward.”
Alene employees are all encouraged to participate in its Alene Gives Back program by taking one paid day off each year to devote to a community service project. During the COVID-19 pandemic, team members rallied to produce and donate more than 40,000 face shields to area health care facilities and first responders. When a tornado destroyed a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, in 2021, Alene raised $40,000 dollars to donate to the victims’ relief fund. The company also gives annually to organizations like the Ronald McDonald House and the Boys & Girls Club.
The Pillar Awards have been given out for more than two decades and are presented by Medical Mutual of OH and Smart Business, a regional business publication.
