stefstein

For many years, I volunteered at a camp for high school students. This program would bring young folks together from all over New Jersey for a week of workshops and small- and large-group discussions about race, bias, and privilege.

My favorite part of the day was always the campfire.

I always liked to use the campfire as a safe space in which people (the students and the adult staff) could sit, contemplative and respectful, in nature in a way not normally accessible to everyone (i.e., city-dwellers like myself).

But we ran multiple camps each summer, and I couldn't work at all of them. And sometimes when I was there, I was too involved in other programs to actively help create the fire, or to help facilitate the evening-closing gathering around it.

So I found a way to help. See, you can obviously build a fire using nothing but wood. But in New Jersey, in the deep summer, it can be really humid. And sometimes with damp firewood, you need a little help. I researched DIY firestarters but was dismayed to see how many relied on paraffin as their combustible element. It seemed hypocritical to gather a community around a campfire in the spirit of peaceful respect for the environment, then take a chunk of petroleum derivative and light. that. s#!t, up.

I developed my firestarters using products and materials I could source responsibly. I wrap and tie each bundle by hand. I want your fire - whether it's in the woods, inside your home, or in your backyard - to be special.

All products are developed and sold in that same spirit. We make a only few things, but we make them carefully, with love and an unwavering eye towards bringing joy to the person in whose hands they end up.