Pictured: Yosie Crespo, Director of Sales for Norman Love Confections (center) with Dr. Helene Lotman (left) and SRQ Magazine Managing Editor, Barbie Heit. Photo by Wyatt Kostygan.

Each year, SRQ Media invites the community to nominate individuals with hearts of giving who have made a significant impact with local nonprofit organizations — from volunteers and board members to individual staff members and donors. This year, attendees were thrilled to be together as we recognized our annual Good Hero Philanthropic Award recipients at the SB2: Philanthropic Agenda Luncheon and Good Hero Philanthropic Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, March 7th at Michael’s on East in Sarasota. In the coming weeks, we are happy to feature each of the ten honorees in our Wednesday Philanthropic edition of SRQ Daily.

Today we are recognizing a corporate good hero, Norman Love Confections. Love is a businessman who recognized the need following Hurricane Ian and put together #SWFLStrong chocolate boxes, donating 50% of every purchase to Better Together, a Southwest Florida-based nonprofit dedicated to serving families and children. The business donated a little over $36,000 to Better Together to support their two programs, Better Families and Better Jobs, helping parents who are going through a hard time to keep their kids out of foster care, find work and address the root causes of their struggle so that they can reunite as a family with the tools and support system to thrive.

“Our entire team is so grateful to our customers for the overwhelming and generous response and the chance to help our community following the devastation of Hurricane Ian,” says Norman Love. “So many families lost everything, and Better Together is literally going door-to-door in the hardest hit areas distributing food, water and other relief supplies directly to families. I was able to join them for a visit in Harlem Heights where I witnessed their boots-on-the-ground support as they helped a family who lost so much due to the storm by giving them a new bed for their toddler, providing food and essential household supplies, and even coordinating a dental appointment for the toddler. I consider this donation a collective ‘holiday gift’ from our customers to the community and I’m truly grateful to everyone who supported us during this heartbreaking time for Southwest Florida.” 

Pictured: Yosie Crespo, Director of Sales for Norman Love Confections (center) with Dr. Helene Lotman (left) and SRQ Magazine Managing Editor, Barbie Heit. Photo by Wyatt Kostygan.