ALAMOSA – On Sunday, Dec. 25, while people across the San Luis Valley gather with family and friends for “that most wonderful time of the year” celebration, Cpl. David Pino with the Monte Vista Police Department will put on his uniform. Respiratory Therapist Autumn Moore at SLV Regional Medical Center will pull on her scrubs. And then they will each kiss their families’ goodbye and walk out the door to go to work.

For Pino and Moore, the term “essential worker” is superfluous. Few jobs are as undeniably necessary — as indisputably essential — as caring for the sick or preserving the peace. But that is what these two people do, and they, along with hundreds of others just like them in the same or similar professions, do it day in and day out, regardless of what day it might be.

Combined, Pino and Moore have almost 35 years of experience in their respective occupations, including many years where they spent Christmas Day on duty. And while their stories may not come in festive foil paper with a bow on top, the thoughts they shared are worth unwrapping on the eve of a holiday that calls for “Peace on earth and good will toward men.”

‘You be that important person’

At 34 years old, Cpl. Pino has spent more than a third of his life with the Monte Vista Police Department. Pino must be doing something right — he’s one of the officers who trains new officers who have just been hired on the force. He also has no illusions about what it means to be a cop.

“People don’t call us to a birthday party to have cake and ice cream. They call us because mom and dad are fighting at the party,” he says. “We understand that Christmas is important to people and sometimes things don’t go as planned, so if we have to intervene, we try to make that contact as professional and productive as we can. That’s what we try to do every day, whether it’s Christmas or the third of January.”

As he speaks, it becomes evident that Pino is clearly a by-the-book kind of officer. But that doesn’t preclude the fact that he’s also a member of the community where he enforces the law.

“On Christmas Day, we always have food coming in from the community — cookies and pies, all sorts of food. It’s just amazing how much the community supports the police department. I’m so blessed to be a member here. I look back on 2020 when the world was crashing, and it was all the fault of the police. Remember that? We didn’t have that backlash here.”

David Pino has a “second job”, aside from being a police officer. He’s also “a first-time dad” married to a “first-time mom” with a six-month-old baby named Hailey Grace.

“Is it going to be hard to be away from my family on Christmas? Yes, it will. But I’ll make it up to them. And my wife respects my profession. She’s been in this with me for twelve years.”

Pino gets quiet for a moment and then says, “The older I get doing this job, the more I think it’s important to think about what this job really means. It’s like what I tell my trainees. When you’re called to a situation, you’re the most important person in that individual’s life at that moment. So be that important person. You be that person to the individual who has called you for help.”

Pino then shares a memory from one Christmas past where what that “important person” does is not always what one might expect.

“One thing is going to stick with me forever. Years back, the police department actually bought gifts for some families around town that we’d had interactions with. And to be able to go to them on Christmas Day and say, ‘Hey, listen, we got you some gifts on Christmas…’

“It was so great to see the children so happy. But to see the parents…to see their hearts open up to us and say thank you. Just thinking about that makes me really proud to be a member of the Monte Vista Police Department. Those are the times that I really think about because we want to remember those times. We don’t want to remember the bad times. We want to remember the times when we were able to give something and bless a family.

“Yeah…that was probably the best day that I’ve ever worked at the Monte Vista Police Department at Christmas. It was just that one time - we weren’t able to do that this Christmas, but we did it that one year. And I still see the kids on a weekly basis. I’m able to go talk to them and interact with them and they say, ‘I will always remember what you did for us.’ That Christmas…that’s a good thing to think about.”

‘It’s about family.

Hospital family.

Family at home.’

For close to 20 years, Moore has worked as a respiratory therapist at SLV Regional Medical Center, a job she describes as a “blessing” and an “opportunity to help” more than an obligation to do so. Respiratory therapists deal with every aspect of life, she says.

“We help pre-term babies who are struggling and in immediate distress the minute they’re born. We help the baby get stabilized so we can transfer them. Then I can go help a COPD patient in the ER, stabilize them and get them up on the floor and feeling better. And I can help a family member pass with the greatest comfort and most dignity possible.

“We help every age of person, from the moment they’re born up to the moment that they’re getting ready to pass. We are there for everything and we’re very, very lucky to be a part of all that at this hospital.”

When she goes into the community, Moore will sometimes have patients come up and thank her.

“That means a lot,” she says. But just as gratifying are those patients who may never say anything but that she still sees over the years and that they’re continuing to do well. “That’s when I think to myself, ‘Oh, yeah.” After twenty years, that commitment is still in her voice.

And that is especially true on Christmas.

“For some of the patients whose families can’t come see them, we are their family, so we work to give them even more care and love.

“But on Christmas, a lot of family members really make that effort to come in and that’s when we see the patients really perk up and come alive. That’s when we say, ‘Oh, that’s who that person is. I can see them now.’ That’s always really nice to see.

“And the family and the patients really need us to make the holiday as blessed and happy as possible. Some of the patients may be feeling really badly. Some may be facing some very hard times. For some, it may be their last Christmas.  They do not need us to say, ‘Man, I have to work on Christmas.’

“They need us to be as cheerful and wonderful as possible, and we’re very blessed to be able to take care of these patients and to give them as much peace and joy and comfort as we can in their last Christmas. There just aren’t that many people who are given that opportunity, to help that family and that patient through that time, knowing that something is going on and to be there. It’s a blessing for us to be able to do that.”

She admits that it’s hard to be away from her three kids.

“When they were young, it was easier because they didn’t know exactly when Christmas was. But when they got a little older, it was more difficult. And thank goodness, Grandpa knows Santa Claus, so we could call Grandpa and let him know that Mom had to be at work so Santa would know to bring gifts on a different day. Now that they’re older, it doesn’t really matter exactly what day Christmas is because it’s more about the day when the family gets to be together.”

To Moore, Christmas is about family. Hospital family. Home family.

“Whether it’s on Christmas Day or not, wherever I am — at the hospital, at home — wherever I am on Christmas, the birth of Christ and His love is what Christmas is all about.”