SWFAS, marketing firm win award

Southwest Florida Addiction Services and Susan Bennett Marketing & Media received a statewide award for excellence in public relations from the Florida Public Relations Association for the SWFAS newsletter, Recovery.

An Award of Distinction was presented Aug. 7 at the annual conference of the Florida Public Relations Association in Sarasota to SWFAS and Susan Bennett Marketing & Media, L.C., which designed the award-winning newsletter Recovery.

The four-page newsletter was redesigned in four colors to make it more visually appealing and serve as the centerpiece of SWFAS' capital campaign to build a new Detoxification Center and Outpatient Treatment Facility.

More than $5.3 million has been raised so far to build the new 44,000 square foot building, which will begin construction later this year on Evans Avenue on land donated by the City of Fort Myers under a long-term lease.

SWFAS is Southwest Florida's most comprehensive substance abuse treatment and prevention program, operating from nine offices throughout Lee and Hendry counties. Since 1980, SWFAS has helped more than 63,000 residents in Lee, Charlotte, Glades and Hendry counties rebuild their lives. SWFAS offers treatment services at all levels of intensity including residential, outpatient counseling, and group therapy. In addition, SWFAS provides detoxification services for adults, prevention programming for all ages, and an Employee Assistance Program for about 80 Southwest Florida businesses. SWFAS is a United Way agency.

Susan Bennett Marketing & Media, L.C., is a full-service public relations and marketing firm based in Fort Myers that was founded in 1991 by Susan Bennett, an accredited public relations professional and certified public relations counselor. Bennett, a former Gannett Co. executive and member of the launch team of USA TODAY, has won more than 170 awards for promotional work on behalf of commercial, non-profit, and governmental clients. ¦