Pictured: (l-r) Kari Jo Koshes with Wes Roberts, Executive Publisher, SRQ Magazine. 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 these individuals at our annual Giving Coast and Good Hero Awards luncheon and panel discussion on Tuesday, January 28 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 one of three Storm Heroes, a category of hero in our ceremony. The nominator of our first Storm Hero recounts the selflessness shown during hurricane Milton “After exhausting hours/days of hurricane debris cleanup from Hurricane Helene, I decided to evacuate from SRQ to NYC prior to Hurricane Milton. Unfortunately, Milton's tremendous hurricane winds destroyed structures, while toppling a 50-year-old ficus tree approximately four stories high in our front yard which uprooted the concrete driveway and ripped apart the sewer line. Kari Jo rode her bike all the way to Siesta Key to update me on the damages at my childhood home. She called me when she arrived. I never asked; she simply did it out of the goodness of her heart!" Her nominator notes. “Rebuilding our Siesta Key home may take a year or more; however, I will be forever grateful for Kari-Jo Koshes–a storm trooper and hero! Hurricane hugs to Kari-Jo, if there is such a thing as "hurricane hugs" (which I coined because this phrase makes hurricane cleanup a bit more comforting."

Pictured: (l-r) Kari Jo Koshes with Wes Roberts, Executive Publisher, SRQ Magazine. Photo by Wyatt Kostygan.