A community came together to protect their own, and now the community is coming together to honor their own heroes.

On Tuesday, June 17, 2025, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., special viewings of a music video, “May You Feel the Love,” were held every half-hour in the auditorium of the Hagood Community Center in Pickens as a tribute to the first responders who protected lives and homes, and the volunteers who aided them, during the March fire on Table Rock Mountain.

The video, which can be viewed above, was directed by Bryan Owens and filmed by Owens and Jim Cawthorn, with audio by Josh Johnson. The song was written by Danielle Yother and sung by Yother and Molly Johnson, both graduates of the Young Appalachian Musicians (YAM) program, founded by Betty McDaniel.

McDaniel, who is credited as Executive Producer on the video, told The Pickens County Chronicle that the video is a gift of appreciation to a multitude of people “because we wanted to show a lot of gratitude to the heroes.”

Yother was unable to attend the viewing, but Johnson was present and, before viewing the completed video, told The Pickens County Chronicle, “Danielle wrote the song, because she’s a really great songwriter, and she asked if I could help back her up, and I was really glad to, especially thanking the firefighters, because it was very close to home, definitely close to Danielle’s. I’m not in Pumpkintown, so it didn’t get too close to me, but we did have to evacuate my grandparents. I was glad to be a part of it and grateful.” After watching the video, Johnson told The Chronicle: “It turned out really well. It’s one thing to hear just the audio and little clips that they show you while they’re recording the video, but putting it all together, it’s really great. I think it turned out really well.”

Pickens County Emergency Services Director Billy Gibson was present for the viewing and told The Pickens County Chronicle, “Anybody that goes into public safety for any reason — law enforcement, fire, EMS — we don’t do it for the glamour or the money. It’s to be a public servant. So, whenever somebody takes the time, puts the effort into making something like this in honor of the folks that helped with this fire — private sector, public sector, everybody that was involved — it really means a lot, and it makes you feel like you have a purpose.” He added that they were “certainly appreciative” of the work that McDaniel and all who were involved in the making of video did. “We’re thankful for that,” he said.

Pickens County Administrator Ken Roper, upon watching the video, told The Pickens County Chronicle, “Seeing the images from the fire takes you back, by themselves. Seeing the pictures of Table Rock takes you back, by itself.” But, to have local artists performing the music over those images, he added, “is so touching, and it really affected me here, just watching it. I found tears in my eyes as I was listening to it. This is a special place.”

State Senator Rex Rice, who attended the viewing, told The Pickens County Chronicle that he calls local first responders “the A-team,” and he said, “These are the best of the best.” Referring to the fires of 2016 and then the fires of this year, he said that they were “dealing with situations that could have been catastrophic.” He added, “We could have lost a lot of homes. My understanding is we may have lost one structure. It is amazing. We watched a miracle — almost 15,000 acres, and we didn’t lose a house. We didn’t lose anybody. We’ve got the best of the best right here in Pickens County.” He added that responders came from Greenville County, other parts of the Upstate, and from other states, as well, to help fight the fires, and he commended them all.

State Representative Davey Hiott, from Pickens, who also attended the viewing, told The Pickens County Chronicle, “I’ve lived here all of my life, and I’ve seen people respond in times of emergency, but I’ve never seen anything quite like we saw during this fire. We saw it in 2016. We thought we’d never see that quite again. But, then, this fire seemed like it was a repeat of what happened. We had just come through the hurricane. We had a whole lot of that lumber and timber down on the ground, and that just added fuel to the fire. And those people — not only from Pickens County but from all over the state and all over the country —  came in and helped us, kept us safe. We had the utmost confidence in the folks from Pickens County leading it. You’ve got to have a leader, and I think Pickens County was the leader in all that. But a whole lot of people were involved. It was quite a sight. Senator Rice and I both got to go up there on several occasions, and, just to watch people, how everybody was coordinated, how everybody knew what they were doing. They knew their job. They knew exactly what they were doing. It was just amazing. I’m very thankful that we’ve got who we’ve got. And I just can’t be more thankful.”

“And all the volunteers,” Rice added. “That’s important. That’s as critical as anything.”

Easley Fire Chief Brad Owen, who also attended the viewing, told The Pickens County Chronicle that the video was very appreciated.  “We appreciate that,” he said. “We don’t do it for recognition, but we appreciate that they would do something like this for us, to honor us. We never asked for that, of course, but I enjoyed the video. I think they did an excellent job on it, and I really do appreciate it, recognizing all the first responders.” He called it a lot of work, “not just with us, a lot of work with the local community and community partners. So, I think to recognize that, all around, the community, is an awesome thing.”

John Adams, who said that he had worked with McDaniel on a previous video that featured the YAM program, spoke to The Pickens County Chronicle after watching the video, “I was just excited to see it,” he said, “because I thought it was a great idea, for them to do that. I came to be supportive.”

Tammy Anthony also attended Tuesday’s special viewing. “I was over the food and donations,” she said about having volunteered during the time of the fire. “It was great to help,” she told The Chronicle. “That’s what this town is all about.” Others who attended on Tuesday included Karen Schneider, Karen Palladino, and Tara Porter, who had helped pack lunches during the time of the fire.

After viewing the video, attendees enjoyed refreshments and fellowship in the cafeteria of the Hagood Community Center.

Available for viewing at the Hagood Community Center the day of the video premiere was a list of people and organizations they wanted to thank. McDaniel told the audience, “I want y’all to notice all the names. Billy Gibson has helped me compile the names of the fire departments, and Tammy (Anthony) has helped me get all the names of the organizations and the restaurants and the churches and all those people. These are not individuals. These are groups of people, and we had around 200 groups of people. And who knows how many are in each group and how many individuals.” McDaniel noted that Anthony sometimes would serve as many as 600 people at one meal. “It goes to show you we can do it, can’t we?’ said McDaniel. “We can do it.”