BETHPAGE, Tenn. (WTVF) — You get a grand platform with a huge audience, it matters how you use it. That's what one woman tells us.
It's a story about looking out for others in your community.
"Anyone who comes in here says they're jealous," smiled Derek Fender as he created candles. "They say they wish their homes smell like it. I tell them, 'It can! Just take one home with ya!'"
Elizabeth Fender is a former 911 dispatcher. Husband Derek is an Army veteran. It was a bit unexpected that they'd end up running the Fender Farmhouse Co. out of their Bethpage home.
"We make toxin-free, all-natural candles," Elizabeth said. "All natural. Cold press soy wax. Completely natural cotton wick with no lead center."
They've learned to embrace the unexpected. They also never guessed they'd end up such good friends with Kari Clark.
"Did you intentionally sit in front of that fan, so that wind would blow through your hair?" I asked Kari.
"Am I having a Beyonce moment?!" she laughed. "Is it working?"
That's TikTok star MrsClark.
"I'm middle-aged, menopausal, and mean," Kari smiled.
Now, her page is a little parental discretion advised.
"Would you let your kids watch all of her videos?" I asked Elizabeth and Derek.
"Um, no," Elizabeth answered. "However, I can relate to her videos."
That's just it. Kari says she's just speaking from the heart.
"I talk about what it's like to be the age I am now," Kari continued. "Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's not."
Elizabeth happened to see Kari in Bethpage one day.
"She looked at me and said, 'Do I know you?'" Kari remembered. "She said, 'You're on social media.'"
"She had brought such joy to my mother and I at a time she was battling cancer," Elizabeth said.
"She said, 'My mother wants you to have a candle. She bought one for you,'" Kari added.
Kari loved the candle so much, she reached back out to the Fenders. She loved their story, making candles on a beautiful property alongside their emotional support turkey. Kari also learned Derek's previous wife died from lung cancer. This work on candles began in her memory. The Fenders were likely to end this business.
"The amount of costs to make a safe candle isn't cheap," Elizabeth said. "The orders just weren't coming in."
"I had nowhere else to go for funds," Derek added.
Kari went to her TikTok page to post a video supporting Fender Farmhouse Co.
"I literally just started crying," Elizabeth said. "We wept."
On TikTok alone, the video got more than 515,000 views. It changed everything.
"MrsClark really saved us," Derek said.
"3,000 orders later, it really kinda took off like wildfire," Kari added.
In the middle of working six to eight weeks' worth of pre-orders, the Fenders have just the thing for Kari.
"Can you believe she made me this candle?" Kari laughed, holding up a huge candle. "It's like a jar of pickled eggs! It's huge! To be a part of doing this for this family, it's been amazing. You can change the trajectory of someone's life."
To support Fender Farmhouse Co., visit their site here.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
