Kim Drayton, a part-time delivery driver for Tiger Lily is a full-time City of Charleston Firefighter. As you may know, in the summer of 2007 a tragic fire claimed nine Charleston Firefighters. It is the greatest loss of firefighters in the U.S. since September 11th. It deeply touched our entire community. For the funeral, hundreds of firefighters from across the country drove their fire engines to Charleston in tribute. It was amazing and humbling.

Kim is part of the honor guard, the team that honors fallen firefighters. He also lost an uncle in the tragedy. Here he represents the Charleston Fire Department in yesterday's renaming of Hwy 17S to "Charleston Nine Memorial Highway". It was renamed to keep "alive a tragic memory of courage and sacrifice."

I met Kim when I first came to Charleston in 1993. I was transferred here from Chicago to run a hotel catering operation for Marriott Corporation. There were 60 people in the department, but only about 6 who carried the load. Kim was one of them and we leaned on each other to get it done. Kim left to pursue his firefighting passion, eventually getting a coveted position with the Charleston Fire Department. We bumped into each other again as I began renovating our present location. Kim would help us paint the new facility on his off days. When the renovation was complete, he started driving for us. His flexible work schedule, hotel catering experience and knowledge of the city makes him a great fit. Again, he has proven to be an extremely important member or our team.

Kim is happily married to a great lady, Consuela and has a son in college and two beautiful and mischevious girls in middle school. He is a great role model and an overall great guy.

Let me tell you, when we first heard of the Charleston Nine Tragedy, we were absolutely numb until we heard from Kim. He was on site that day and thankfully escaped harm. It was a very personal reminder of what all first responders put on the line everyday. Everytime I hear a siren I think of the Charleston Nine.

The City of Charleston asked us to provide the nine fresh floral wreaths for the first anniversay memorial service held this summer. You can check them out further down the blog.