Sonoma holiday workers: All part of the job

Police, fire, health care workers – Santa’s not the only one who doesn’t get Christmas off|

While you’re toasting your loved ones around the fireplace or unwrapping presents, Sonoma’s unsung heroes of the holidays will be staffing police and fire stations, tending to the sick and feeding the hungry.

Sonoma’s holiday workers told the Index-Tribune that they miss their families on the special days, but most have come up with resourceful ways to enjoy the holiday just the same. Many said it’s just something they’re accustomed to.

To Sgt. Greg Piccinini, of the Sonoma Police Department, working Christmas is practically a family tradition.

“I come from a long line of workers in the public safety sector. My uncle, Jack Piccinini, retired as chief of the Rincon Valley/Windsor Fire Protection District. My father retired as the Head Sheriff of Sonoma County in 2002. I was raised to understand that we work on holidays,” said Piccinini.

Of course, the officers don’t work every holiday, but when they must, “Since we have to be away from our families and this is our second family, we make our own holiday feast at the station,” said Piccinini.

Piccinini worked this Thanksgiving, and he brought chips, salsa, cheese dip, a veggie platter and a meat and cheese platter to the station to share. A coworker brought sloppy Joes, an unusual but fun menu item.

“That was the day shift. The guys on the swing shift and graveyard shift did a full Thanksgiving dinner,” Piccinini said as he sat at his desk in the Sonoma police station Wednesday.

Seated at the adjoining desk, Sgt. Jeff Toney added, “I’ve been with this department just a few days shy of 20 years. Our traditions are passed down from senior deputies.”

Toney is working this Christmas, but the even-keeled sergeant said he doesn’t mind. Like many holiday workers, he has simply moved his family celebration to a different day.

“This year my family Christmas will be a week before Christmas,” Toney said.

Holidays have a special meaning to Sonoma sheriff’s deputies, Toney said. Every year, the deputies, dispatchers and others come in on their own time, pick up turkeys and deliver them to people in need.

“Deputies being out and about in the community, we see families that need a little help. We will go back and give that family a turkey,” Piccinini said. The department gave away 45 turkeys purchased by the Deputy Sheriff’s Association to these families, as well as folks recommended by the District Attorney’s Office and the Earle Baum Center of the Blind, according to Piccinini. This year’s giveaway was Nov. 19, he said.

The sheriff’s association purchased a total of 160 turkeys, the rest of which were distributed in other parts of the county.

The Sonoma Valley Fire & Rescue Authority workers who will be on duty during holidays showed the same willing spirit, saying they will be glad to serve on the special days.

“I worked Thanksgiving and will work Christmas Eve,” said Firefighter Laura Wood with a broad smile. Fire Capt. Ted Hassler, who was on duty at the station with Wood Monday, is working the same shifts this year.

Ray Mulas, fire chief of the Schell-Vista Fire District, which has three full-time employees, said the crew works things out in advance “so nobody gets stuck working on every holiday.”

The crew talks things over and decides who will work when depending on how the various families observe the holiday.

“My family has a Thanksgiving dinner, maybe other families open presents on Christmas Eve while others do it Christmas Day,” Mulas said. “It’s all about working with your brothers and sisters in the service.”

Mulas’ family owns Mulas Dairy Company, and workers there must show up on Christmas Day because cows must get milked and feed must be put out for them every day, he said.

“It’s an extremely short day. We get there around 6:30 a.m. and usually we can finish up by 9:30 or so,” Mulas said.

Like the dairy, the fire department and the police department, “we can’t close our doors. We have to have staff here,” said Mark Kobe, chief nursing officer at Sonoma Valley Hospital.

Another thing in common: “We know we have to work holidays when we graduate nursing school,” Kobe said. “That’s part of the passion and the burden we bear.”

Kobe has been a nurse since 1985, a total of 33 years.

“It’s a lot of holidays,” he admitted. The hardest time, he said, “was when my children were small. My wife is a nurse also. For her to miss Christmas morning is the worst.

“But again, it’s not every single year. You just sort of bite the bullet for that one year,” Kobe said. There are about 150 nurses at the hospital, he said, and normally in a 24-hour period there are about 40 people, including clerks, on duty. That goes down to about 30 on holidays.

Similarly to the fire and police departments, workers sign up to work on the holiday of their choice, and don’t have to do it every year, he said.

Everyone, including the doctors on duty on holidays, brings food on the holidays, he said.

“We’re all in it together,” Kobe said.

The Black Bear Diner in downtown Sonoma will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Manager Hugo Martinez will be there, and he said he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“There are people who don’t have families. I want to help them,” Martinez said. “As a human being, I don’t want to be lonely that day, and a lot of people don’t have families.”

His wife and three kids age 5, 13 and 15 will wait dinner for him on Christmas Day, Martinez said.

Everyone who will be working on Christmas volunteered to do so, Martinez said. There will be a staff of seven servers, two hostesses, four cooks, one prep worker and two dishwashers, as well as Martinez. Usually it’s twice that number, he said.

Martinez transferred to Sonoma from the Black Bear in Modesto, and “I fell in love with this community,” he said.

Reach Janis Mara at janis.mara@sonoma.news.com.

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