Crawford nominated Conner as a Dayton Daily News Community Gem because, in part, “he always has a good word to those who need to hear one.”
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
For about a decade, Conner has been helping to provide for less fortunate families food and school supplies, often times paying for the items himself, Crawford said.
Conner said he works with Dayton Public Schools, Dayton Leadership Academies and several schools in Texas, where he spent his teen and early adult years.
Conner said he knows what it’s like to go without.
“I am a product of the Salvation Army dinner boxes, food pantry, handouts any way they came.,” he said.
After moving to Dallas as a young teen, Conner’s mother became a caseworker for Volunteers of America.
“Every year my mother would have me make time to give back taking food to the less fortunate who were in the same position we once were in,” he said. “So it kinda stuck to me and to this day I do all I can to give back to the communities that gave to me when I didn’t have it.”
During the 2020 winter holidays, Conner said he helped organize efforts to provide dinners to about 40 COVID-19 first responders.
Conner works in distribution for Cox First Media and is forming Spared Because Of His Blood Ministries.
He also involved in the Conner Foundation, the Dayton Boys and Girls Club and the Make a Wish Foundation.
“I’m more of a person who sits behind the scenes,” he said. “I don’t need the recognition for what I do. That’s the person I am. I do it just for the fact that’s what’s in my heart.”
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