East Texas candle company provides job training for special education students

WHITEHOUSE, Texas (KLTV) - The Old White House Candle Company is opening its doors to special education students looking for job training.

What started as an activity for Katie Cahalane to work on with her family turned in to a family business.

Now, she wants to take that family business and extend it to special education students.

“Have those kiddos come over during the day for job training, and assistance, and things like that,” Cahalane said.

Cahalane is a former teaching assistant for the special education department at Whitehouse ISD. In the field, she saw the need for hands-on experience for the students.

“Working with the school district with the special ed kids, and also having an adult special ed kid still in high school, we realized there was a huge need for local businesses to maybe have some type of job training availability,” Cahalane said. “We were super excited, we were like, ‘We can do this! We can do it ourselves!’”

For her son Ian, his favorite part is cutting the wax.

“They need somewhere that is theirs. Where they can feel useful, and validated, and successful, and that’s what I’m trying to work towards,” Cahalane said.

Cahalane said she is still working with the school district to work out details on working with the students.

She hopes this inspires more businesses to consider hiring special education students.

“Sometimes people might, they might be scared. They might not feel comfortable, or how to go about it, or even know that it’s a need. If I didn’t have a special ed child nor work in that field, I wouldn’t know that it was a need that even existed.”

The Old White House Candle Company will have its grand opening in August.

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