Small Wins!: Our Community Pharmacy In West Philly Honored For Going Above And Beyond For Community
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- CBS3 is awarding deserving businesses with our Small Wins! grant. We surprised our latest winner with a check worth $75,000. Eyewitness News anchor Janelle Burrell presented the check to an employee at a local pharmacy. She was nominated for going above and beyond to help her customers, even after their pharmacy was destroyed.
"We were so impressed by what you have done here in the West Philly community that we wanted to honor you and continue your mission of helping the community by presenting you this check for $75,000! Congratulations!" Janelle Burell said as she presented the check.
"Thank you, we needed this," Candida Webb said as she fought back tears.
This moment is one borne of frustration, persistence, and now renewed hope. To understand their tears, you have to understand what this mother and daughter have overcome.
"We pay ourselves minimum wage just to keep this running," Hyshaquara Ortiz said.
Ortiz and her mom, Candida Webb, are a team at "Our Community Pharmacy" in West Philadelphia.
It was Ortiz who nominated her mom, known as "Miss Candy," for the CBS3 small business grant because of her unshakeable dedication to their customers.
"She literally treats them like they're her family," Ortiz said. "Miss Candy has survived hardships and conditions that could sink a ship."
Our Community Pharmacy is just one of a handful of pharmacies in their neighborhood -- and a vital lifeline for their patients.
In 2020 as parts of West Philly were ransacked by looters, the business that they had built with their small team was gutted. They were devastated and feared how their customers would survive without the medicine they depend on. So they decided to use their own money to pick up the pieces and ensure those patients would not go without.
Webb says she was frustrated following the looting.
"It was frustration, tears, the neighbors, the seniors, the mothers who have sick children. We didn't sit around and wait for insurance. We put out our own money, out of our own pockets," Webb said. "We go to them and we deliver to them because no one else will. Those are the neighbors that need us the most. West Philly is the reason, the people and the community is the reason why I picked here."
And she has no intention of ever leaving.
"My plan is to put it [the grant money] back into the community so we can help educate and get more resources," Webb said. "Only thing you can do is try to keep focused and understand that you're doing a good deed, and saving someone's life."
