Love helping to support a party (9)
I believe the answer is:
adoration
'love' is the definition.
(to adore someone is to love them)
'helping to support a party' is the wordplay.
'helping' becomes 'ration' (a ration is a serving or helping).
'to support' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (in a down clue, some letters hold up others).
'party' becomes 'do' (do can informally mean a party).
'a'+'do'='ado'
'ration' put after 'ado' is 'ADORATION'.
(Other definitions for adoration that I've seen before include "praise" , "high regard" , "What star gets from fans" , "enormous respect" , "Great affection" .)