The Covid-19 motto of Sebring Soda & Ice Cream Works was “when the going gets tough, the tough get ice cream.” In the middle of March the small business added curbside delivery. In an act to pay it forward, individuals and businesses made generous donations to provide a uplifting treats to frontline workers throughout the community. Sebring Soda & Ice Cream Works encouraged community members to donate any denomination to keep the goodwill going. The motion set in place by Chad P. Dubose’s initial pay it forward recognition of essential workers resulted in a phenomenon of over 30 local business and private donors providing meals, snacks and treats for numerous frontline medical workers at local facilities such as AdventHealth, Lake Placid Health Care Center, Highlands Regional Medical Center, Highlands Dialysis Center, Patel Pulmonary as well as several individual doctors offices. Essential workers and first responders were also not forgotten.
Highlands County also saw other acts of kindness and displays of support for its residents. Sugar Sand Distillery partnered with US Sugar to produce and distribute hand sanitizer to private consumers and companies as needed. The hand sanitizer was made at Sugar Sand Distillery, which uses sugarcane molasses to distill alcohol used in the hand sanitizer. Sugarcane is a powerful plant, and recognizing the increased demand for hand sanitizer, Sugar Sand Distillery shifted its focus away from making spirits for awhile to helping fulfill a vital need in the Heartland area during Covid-19. The youth of the Highlands County also found innovative ways to help. Seeing the need to ease the ear comfort of wearing facemasks, Joey Chen of Sebring made facemask ear shields on his 3D printer and provided them to those who were in need. Chen printed 108 shields and mailed them all over.
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