Throughout the Station 18 and Ladder One fire house on Daniel Island are reminders of the community’s appreciation. Comfortable new leather furniture. A big screen TV. A new Wii console with plenty of accompanying games. A special video made by students at the Daniel Island School honoring the firefighters’ contributions. Pictures, letters and other mementos expressing thanks. Countless breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks - consumed but not forgotten.

All are gifts from various island residents, families, groups and clubs in commemoration of 52 Weeks of Thanks, a program initiated by the Daniel Island Property Owners Association (POA) one year ago. The idea to have folks "adopt" firefighters, police and emergency medical workers for a week at a time came about after the devastating Sofa Super Store fire in June of 2007 that claimed the lives of nine Charleston firefighters.

"After the fire a couple of years ago, you couldn’t ride by a station and not see people randomly walking in with food, flowers or gifts," said Jimmy Bailey, head of the island’s POA and administrator for the Daniel Island Community Fund. "And it just seemed to me it’s a shame that it takes such an awful tragedy for people to become intertwined with the station that serves their community. It’s something that should happen year round."

After Bailey announced the program at last year’s Concert in the Park and at the Daniel Island Fourth of July program, scores of adoptees began filling up the calendar. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, church groups, local clubs such as ROMEO (Retired Men Eating Out), the National Golf Course Owners Association, Rotary Club of Daniel Island, the Daniel Island School PTA, and dozens of other families and organizations took part.

The men and women of Daniel Island’s Station 18 and Ladder One pose for a photo with members of the Daniel Island School PTA, one of 51 groups that “adopted” the station as part of the island’s 52 Weeks of Thanks program.

"It kind of happened exactly the way that I had hoped," said Bailey. "And that was that people would do all sorts of different things, from small thank you’s to pretty big ‘wow’ projects…I wanted people to just do it their own way and for it to be very natural. That was the inspiration for the project."

The men and women who serve the Daniel Island community from Station 18 and Ladder One are incredibly thankful for the island’s generosity.

"They did so much for us," said Captain Rufus Brown. "Everything turned out wonderful and we appreciate the community. They didn’t have to do it, but we sure do appreciate it…It was always something different. A lot of cards, kids made books for us, folks made baskets, they made vases with flowers."

"The firemen I’ve talked to have just been blown away by the generosity of the people in this community," added Bailey. "…They have been as welcoming to the community as the community has been in paying them tribute."

According to Capt. Brown, the showering of attention has helped set the Daniel Island station apart.

"This is very much unique to Daniel Island," he said. "We don’t get this at (other stations). For us, it’s a new experience because a lot of guys didn’t know what to expect. People were always bringing food and there were just a lot of neat things going on. A lot of guys want to come over here because of that, because they know that the community here really takes care of us…We couldn’t ask to be in a better place besides this island."

Bailey hopes the island’s outpouring of support doesn’t end with the conclusion of the 52 Weeks of Thanks program.

"What I hope is that after this formal program ends that people will just say on a whim ‘let’s make an extra batch of cookies and drop them by.’ I think that definitely will happen…That’s sort of quintessential small town America, where the fire house is a part of the fabric of the community, and that’s the way it should be. It’s a shame that we didn’t do as good a job with that before the (Sofa Super Store) fire, but we hope that this is a great building block to making sure we always recognize the importance of having these folks as part of the community."