From Marion Junction, with love: Couple makes Soap For Hope for Ukraine

One of the most original efforts to help the people in Ukraine is happening in Marion Junction, Alabama.

It is Soap For Hope, and it is the brainchild of Laura Spencer. She and her husband Chip and their children, Mac and Veigh Kaye, have Spencer Farm and Simply Making It. Spencer makes goats milk soap with fresh milk from goats on the farm. “I’m on a Facebook page for soap makers from all over the world,” Laura Spender said. “I got the idea when I saw the posts from Ukrainian soap makers, they would always preface with, ‘We’re still alive’ or ‘We’re still here.’”

In their posts, Spencer said they would tell stories about giving their soaps to their neighbors just to brighten their day. But she said they can only do this for a limited time because “they can’t get supplies to make new things. They don’t have a sales outlet since they can’t ship things out through the website. They’re just sharing their soaps with their neighbors as long as they can.”

More inspiration to do something came when she heard other stories about people who had to endure day to day. “like one of the lady who posted that she went out to the store for the first time because the missile fire was not as frequent and not as close,” Spencer said. “She was walking by a person who raised flowers, but their greenhouse got hit by a missile fragment and was destroyed, so the person was giving away the flowers just to try and brighten peoples’ day.”

With the online correspondence and watching the news, Spencer knew she wanted to help, but she also knew that while they weren’t in a position to make a donation, “we can make soap.” Using her goats milk soap recipe, she added coloring dyes that make the bars the same colors as the Ukrainian flag. She finished it off with a peace sign heart logo.

She realized that if she left the soap at her normal price, it would take “a lot of soap just to make a dent. So I raised the price to $10, which is roughly twice what my soap usually sells for. But I am donating 100% of the profit,” Spencer explained. She is giving the money to CARE’s Ukraine Crisis Fund, which focuses on women and children who are in great need because of the war.

She made the first batch March 13 and put it on her website. “Within 48 hours, I was able to make a $1,500 donation. It’s still surreal to me. And it’s primarily local support from Dallas and Perry counties.”

Spencer said people sharing on Facebook have been a big help. As the first batch of Soap For Hope began to dwindle, “it had been shared over 160 shares on Facebook, and one of those was Jason and Brook of Cog Hill Family Farm, and you know their outreach.”

The original mold made 34 bars of soap. “I was making a new batch every day,” Spender said. “My husband Chip built me another mold so I could double up. I have made nine other batches since the first one. As of this moment (March 20 at 5 p.m.) I have as many bars of soap as I have orders. I’m hoping it doesn’t stay that way. I’m hoping orders will keep rolling in so I can keep making donations.”

Spencer said she is about to make another $1,000 donation.

“I never expected this response,” Spender said. “I made the first hundred bars and had them on the shelf with high hopes that I wasn’t going to have a bunch of Ukrainian flag soap nobody wanted. I have had people ask me if I have a cutoff number, but as long as I have the materials and there is a need and people are willing to donate, I will love to be the avenue for that. You can sit there and be sad and wish you could do something, or you can do what you can.”

You can find Simply Making It on Facebook. You can order the soap on their website www.simplymakingit.com. If you are anywhere around Marion Junction, you can save shipping charges by picking it up in person.

From Marion Junction, with love:

Couple makes Soap For Hope for Ukraine