Our Story
Hello! We're so glad you're here!
Thank you for visiting our site!
We have lived in Knoxville our whole lives and can’t imagine living anywhere else. We attended Webb School of Knoxville from the time they opened the lower school in 1998 through our graduation years. We both went to Wofford College in South Carolina where we played Division 1 football and tennis.
Webb and Wofford gave us everything we needed to grow as individuals and as aspiring business owners. Between the two of us having majors in Finance, Accounting and Business Economics we felt well equipped for life after college and have been entrepreneurs together ever since.
Having also worked for Wofford’s Fundraising program we got to see first hand the lasting impact that even the smallest donation of $1 has on a community and how important it is for us to give back.
We See The Sunsphere Everyday
After being away for 4-5 years we gained an even deeper appreciation for Knoxville. We moved back to the Scruffy City in 2013 because there is no place like home!
We’ve enjoyed living downtown on Gay Street for the past 5 years and find it difficult to imagine living anywhere else.
What Happened To Our Sun?
While taking a stroll on a cold November day, a glimmer of the Sunsphere caught our eye. As we got closer we could easily see that it was covered in dirt and some of the windows appeared to be completely discolored and broken.
It was disappointing to see our iconic city symbol in distress. And it stayed like this for an extended period of time. It didn’t reflect the energy and new life that continues to take over Downtown Knoxville.
An Idea Sparked!
We have a holiday tradition of adding a special ornament to our collection every year. But not just any ornament… it has to be from a special place or have sentimental meaning to us in some way. It dawned on us that a Sunsphere ornament would be the perfect sentimental sparkly addition to our tree. And surely purchasing one would help it in some way too!
A Passion Project Was Born
For three years we searched for a beautiful glass ornament of the Sunsphere. We couldn’t even find a simple replica. That’s when we decided to create our own. The purpose of the Sunsphere ornament was to give back to the city that we love so much and to create something Knoxvillians will cherish forever.
We Found The Best Ornament Makers
For a year and a half we searched for a high-end ornament manufacturer. We wanted the best of the best to make the ornament, so we enlisted a leading designer of custom ornaments from Europe
European artistry has been long detected in the art of glass molds to produce Christmas ornaments. We knew they could help us bring our ornament design to life.
And Created The Ornament We Were Searching For
The artists performed all of the delicate details from the carving, molding, and glass blowing to the hand-painting and glittering for all 500 limited edition Sunsphere ornaments.
A unique and timeless collectible that is beautiful to look at and display all year long. Every ornament is packaged with love, perfect for giving as a gift or for treating yourself.
Here Comes The Sun
After 2 years of designing the ornament and working with the City of Knoxville and Visit Knoxville, we’re so excited to offer the ornament to the public.
We hope to see The Sunsphere Fund grow into something bigger and better than we could have ever imagined.
We hope you enjoy our ornament as much as we enjoyed creating it.
