ALEGRIA ACCESSORIES Woman-Owned | Handcrafted in Honduras | Fair Trade Verified | Indiana-Based | 99% Local Sourcing
Alegria Accessories—meaning "joy" in Spanish—was born from a career crossroads and a heart full of purpose. In December 2020, Indiana native Sarah Capehart found herself at an unexpected turning point when Premier Designs, the jewelry company where she'd worked as a sales representative for nearly 23 years, was forced to shut down. Facing an uncertain career change later in life, Sarah felt a powerful prompting to channel her extensive jewelry industry experience toward something more meaningful: start a business that would provide jobs for the young women of Faith Home, the children's home in Honduras that her parents founded in 1998 to care for abused, neglected, and abandoned children.
Growing up with parents dedicated to humanitarian work, Sarah had witnessed firsthand the difficult realities these young women faced as they aged out of the orphanage—mistreated in local jobs, forced to work without pay, unable to support their families, trapped in cycles of poverty with no pathway forward.
Inspired by her parents' decades of dedication and combining her jewelry expertise with her desire to make a tangible difference, Sarah said yes to an audacious vision: create a company that would employ these young women in safe, dignified work with living wages.
Within days of conceiving the idea, Sarah reached out to Premier Designs, who joined her mission by donating liquidated merchandise to help launch the venture. She quickly found a business manager, hired a law firm, and sourced materials—and despite COVID travel restrictions delaying the process, she finalized paperwork and incorporated Alegria Accessories in Honduras in early February 2021.
Three young women who grew up at the children's home said yes to part-time work, and the company began around a humble table on a porch in Honduras. Today, Alegria employs seven young women full-time in an air-conditioned office, handcrafting trendy, unique, high-quality jewelry sold online and in stores across the United States—transforming lives one piece at a time.
Every piece of Alegria jewelry is handcrafted with exceptional quality materials: hypoallergenic and generously plated or filled precious metals (with some pieces in solid sterling silver), polished glass crystals that won't cloud, darken, or yellow, and genuine semi-precious and precious stones. The artisans design over 100 unique jewelry styles annually, creating limited-edition collections that drop monthly—and when they're gone, they're gone.
Each piece tells a story of resilience, craftsmanship, and hope, handmade by talented women who are learning to run a business, gaining confidence and peace from consistent income, and accessing healthcare and dental care for the first time. Sarah is deeply committed to putting her employees first—even during slow seasons, she ensures the women are paid, often at her own expense, because ending the cycle of poverty for these women and their families isn't negotiable.
As a Fair Trade Verified company, Alegria is committed to fair wages, safe working conditions, and creating more inclusive opportunities for all. But the mission extends beyond certification: Alegria prioritizes people and planet first by sourcing 99% of materials locally within Honduras (minimizing carbon footprint from international importing while supporting the local economy), using recycled materials, implementing minimal packaging with QR codes to share their story digitally (reducing waste), and reusing or recycling all shipping materials at their Indiana office.
The company continues working toward even more sustainable and responsible sourcing, production, and shipping practices because sustainability and social impact are inseparable. Sarah calls customers "Joy-Creators"—heroes who understand that shopping the Alegria collection means jobs, empowerment, and changing the trajectory of entire families. Partnering retailers are "Joy-Partners," huge-hearted store owners who've invested in inventory to help more people join the mission. Sarah's dream? To see Alegria in 1,000 stores with 100 women employed in Honduras one day—because when you can see the change on someone's face, when you're making a difference across cultures and continents, that's when joy becomes more than a word. That's when it becomes a movement.
