5 firms, nonprofit honored

Lynne Guran, left, of WTVG-Channel 13, shares a moment with Richard Eppstein, president of the Better Business Bureau of Northwest Ohio, which observed its 90th anniversary yesterday.

Five Toledo-area companies and one nonprofit group were the recipients yesterday of Torch Awards from the Better Business Bureau of Northwest Ohio, Inc., which was celebrating its 90th anniversary.

To call attention to the anniversary, Better Business Bureau officials wore 1919 period costumes at an afternoon awards ceremony and luncheon at Gladieux Meadows in Toledo and attended by 350 area business leaders and their guests.

The Torch Awards are given to businesses or groups that best display marketplace ethics. Winners for small companies were Mullian Insurance Services, 4221 Lewis Ave., an independent insurance agency, and That Special Woman Inc., 2461 North Reynolds Rd., a shop that sells wigs and prosthetics to female cancer patients.

Medium-size company winners were Toledo Lasik Center LLC, 6975 West Central Ave., which performs laser vision correction, and Uckele Health & Nutrition, of Blissfield, Mich., which provides nutritional products and services to animals and humans.

Large-size company winners were Children's Discovery Center, a Maumee chain of Christian-oriented children's day-care centers, and Lutheran Social Services of Northwestern Ohio, 2149 Collingwood Blvd., a nonprofit that provides adoption, mental health counseling, emergency food, parenting, and other social services in Lucas County.