They didn’t mean for it to happen, it just happened organically. When that first lunch meeting was over, they knew that what had taken place that day was something special and desperately needed amongst the fire service. They made a plan that day to spread the word. They wanted to get as many people as they could to experience what they had that first day. It was important to them that they include the fire service and first responders.

They then set a date a month out and everyone invited everyone they could. Approximately 35 people showed up. People came from 2 hours away to be apart of The Kitchen Table. Through the support of many businesses like The Local Tavern, MySaline, Firefighters First Credit Union, Service Restoration, and Outlaw Beer, made this all possible. In addition to the support of many of our fellow first responders, including the First In Fire Conference and the Little Rock Memorial 9/11 Stair Climb, they were able to have a great time and offer several giveaways.

Firefighter Stephen Adams said “The first time I realized how important what we did was, during that second meet up. I saw retired firefighters mentoring rookies. I saw people sharing stories about things they had experienced or things that they were going through. I saw people realize that they were not alone and, in fact, other people had gone through similar things. As Ted Lasso said ‘there’s one thing worse than being sad, it’s being alone and sad’ and nobody was alone that day.”