PUNTA GORDA \u2014 More than 400 local business owners, their families and friends gathered on Friday for a night of celebration at the 2026 Best Of Charlotte.<\/p>\n
Hosted by Adams MultiMedia\u2019s The Daily Sun, it was celebrated at the Charlotte Harbor Event and Conference Center, the event invited guests to dress up in their spookiest outfits for Halloween.<\/p>\n
From loofahs and pimps to vampires and the Chicago Pope, attendees took the assignment very seriously.<\/p>\n
Many businesses up for an award Friday night credited their clients and the community\u2019s trust for their success.<\/p>\n
Custom Pools, owned by Jason Tarl, won Best Pool Builder, Remodel and Pool Service. It\u2019s not the first nomination the company\u2019s been up for. Staff say the reason is because of its customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very thankful,\u201d said Kristin Culrera, a design consultant and construction manager. \u201cJason does a lot for the community, and in turn, they reciprocate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mary Rodriguez, owner of Love You Selfie Studio, feels the same way.<\/p>\n
Despite her business starting only two years ago, Rodriguez had won a Best Of award two times prior to Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be here with three more is incredible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez was dressed as Morticia from \u201cThe Addams Family,\u201d after deciding that a scarecrow wasn\u2019t the best she could do.<\/p>\n
Just like Rodriguez, the Suncoast Credit Union at Charlotte Harbor, which was up for Best Bank and Credit Union, dressing up was not an option.<\/p>\n
Five representatives of the company banded together as crayons of different shades.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may all be different colors, but together, we make one amazing team, just like crayons in a box,\u201d said Kassandra Gomez, the assistant branch manager.<\/p>\n
Since 2018, the company has received and won several Best Of nominations. Friday was no different. The credit union\u2019s staff said it doesn\u2019t do it for the glory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are here to improve the financial lives of our community, one member at a time,\u201d Gomez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUNTA GORDA \u2014 More than 400 local business owners, their families and friends gathered on Friday for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[163149,173282,209,211,210,22724,503,14484],"class_list":["post-444974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-best-of","tag-best-of-charlotte","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-charlotte-harbor","tag-halloween","tag-punta-gorda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}