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Christmas has been a lot different for many of us. Those feeling extra grateful this year are people who have worked for months on the frontlines of the response to the coronavirus.

Nurse Dominique Peterson got to spend Christmas morning with her family, but Friday night, she was working a 12-hour shift at NCH North Naples Hospital.

Frontline workers like Peterson have seen a lot. Despite everything that’s happened in 2020 due to the pandemic, she is staying positive and thankful. She’s helped pregnant mothers give birth while they also battle COVID-19.

“It’s been crazy. It’s been crazy for everybody. But in health care, we’ve learned to be very flexible about things,” Peterson said.

She spent time with her family for the holiday and then went back to respond to patients alongside her fellow nurses.

“Three a.m. and 4 a.m. is hard, but we will get through it,” Peterson said. “I’m sure we are all going to be a little sleep deprived because we usually choose to spend some extra time with our family on these days instead of getting sleep.”

Even though we all can agree 2020 has been tough, to say the least, Peterson says she’s tried to see the positive in everything.

“Usually, during the holidays we are rushing from one place to the next place, to the next place, to the next, so much so that we are drained,” Peterson said. “It was really nice to be able to just spend Christmas Eve in solitude with my family.”

With multiple COVID-19 vaccines, there’s hope next Christmas will be better.

Although Peterson is inside NCH, she knows she’s not the only person who has been on the frontlines for months and working on Christmas. From law enforcement to firefighters, other health care workers and their families, she says thank you.

“It’s been a year with this, but we are going to get through it.”

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It was a Christmas filled with treats, toys and lots of love as the Gulf Coast Humane Society in Fort Myers held its annual giving tree event Friday.

Dogs in the Humane Society’s care picked out gifts underneath the Christmas tree, and it was all made possible through donations.

Each ornament was made by volunteers for a specific animal.

Brian Weirima, with the Humane Society, says it’s a hit every single year, but the community really pulled through in 2020.

“We are open 365 days a year, every single day, because the animals, they don’t know it’s Christmas Day,” Weirima said. “We still need to come in, but we still like to give them their holiday. The community steps up every single year for these animals, and not just for the giving tree but all year round.”

Shelter cats also received Christmas presents from donors.

The Gulf Coast Humane Society said that this year, it has been able to give away 19 tons of food since April at its mobile food pantries.

“People did not skip a beat with giving to help our shelter animals,” Weirima said.

The Humane Society is back open Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. for anyone who is interested in adoption or donation.

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Bundle up Southwest Florida! It will be the coldest morning of the season across the area as lows plummet into the 30s and 40s on Saturday morning, following our powerful Christmas Eve cold front.

Then, when you factor in a light northerly wind, the wind chill values will ‘feel’ like the 20s and 30s.

However, despite ample sunshine on Saturday, our highs only warm to near 60 with a light north wind near 5 to 10 MPH in the afternoon!

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The St. Matthew’s House Campbell Lodge in East Naples opened Friday to ensure anyone in need had a meal on Christmas.

Christmas is a holiday many are used to spending with all their loved ones at the dinner table, along with a hot meal.

Like so many, Jim Calderwood was forced to break that tradition in 2020.

“We’re here today because we’re struggling like everyone else with coronavirus, and we’re short on food stamps or money,” Calderwood said.

It’s a difficult reality on a special day.

“It’s tough; it’s really hard,” Calderwood said. “There’s a lot of people out there that are struggling.”

Calderwood, along with Christopher Castellon, is one of the hundreds who picked some food up at St. Matthews House for the holiday.

“It’s real good that they’re doing this for the community because a lot of people are starving,” Castellon said.

Those with St. Matthew’s House were happy their effort benefitted those in the communities they serve.

“The need has been greater than ever this year,” said Rev. Michael Orsi, who is on the nonprofit’s board of directors. “We’ve been able to meet the need over and above anything that we ever expected.”

Some of the people who picked up meals also received a bag of necessities, included with items such as soap, a toothbrush and deodorant.

Cooks at the shelter prepared hot-and-ready meals starting Thursday, and those in need are thankful they did.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Castellon said.

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With the cold weather expected Friday night, Southwest Florida opened up shelters to make sure people experiencing homelessness had a warm place to stay.

Staff in Lee County handed out blankets and hot coffee to the homeless, as well as hand warmers and socks.

For the past decade, Gene Bradley’s family has celebrated Christmas by bringing holiday cheer to homeless people in their community.

“So we scoped out where we saw people for the last couple of weeks, and we’re out here just giving back what we collected,” Bradley said.

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Taking to the skies or hitting the road, people were willing to travel far and wide to be with family this Christmas.

Katie Dillon and her fiancé were two of them.

“With the travel restrictions, he can’t fly home to Sweden, and I can’t fly home to Canada, and so we didn’t want to be alone for Christmas, so we decided to make the trip,” Dillon said.

The couple made the 11 and a half hour trip from Greensboro, North Carolina to be with extended family for a socially distant Christmas celebration.

“We wanted the isolation of being in our own car and the safety of that because I know, being in an airplane, you’re sharing the air space. Even to wear a mask, it’s just not worth the risk for us,” Dillon said.

Gary Chase and his family took the risk, flying in from Boston.

“That’s the part I’m most nervous about, you know, but people kept their masks on … I’ll be glad when we’re home and we’re safe,” Chase said.

He wasn’t the only one taking a risk this Christmas. The TSA reports that more than 6 million people passed through security this past week, a record high since the pandemic began.

“Nothing was going to keep me from being able to spend time with them,” said Thelma Moesker of Ontario.

Travelers who spoke with WINK News are grateful to have the opportunity to be with family members this holiday season. They want to have some sense of normalcy in renewing family traditions in what has been a year far from normal.

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A woman says she and her two dogs were attacked by a black bear in Collier County on the morning of Christmas Eve Thursday.

Kathleen Boyle spoke to us Friday, the day after she says her two dogs and a bicyclist helped her escape from a mother bear after they ran into her cubs during a morning walk in the Fiddler’s Creek community.

Boyle says her dogs, one ironically named Bear, and her other pup, Robin, both stayed by her side when they encountered a family of bears in the neighborhood.

“It wasn’t until probably 11:30, 12 o’clock that I stopped shaking,” Boyle said. “Because it was that trauma, ‘I can’t believe this just happened.’”

Boyle’s two Westies are show dogs, but they didn’t worry about manners when a bear approached them and their owner.

“So here you’ve got an 18-pound terrier who’s going to defend his master against a 400-pound bear,” Boyle said.

She was walking her terriers on their leashes down her street when she saw two bear cubs. She knew that meant their mom wasn’t far away, so she ran.

“I only made it 20, 30 paces,” Boyle said. “[Bear] turned around and starts going back toward the cubs. I turned around and realized that the mama bear was coming after us.”

During the 15-minute attack, both dogs fought. First, it was Bear who put up a defense.

“He went into her belly and bit her belly and started attacking her, so she came after him,” Boyle said. “She on all fours picked him up in her mouth and drove him to the ground, bit him.”

Then, Robin stepped in.

“The bear was up on her hind legs and so [Robin] ran into her legs and bit her belly,” Boyle said.

And then Boyle fought back too.

“I started punching her and she, distracted, looked at me,” Boyle said. “It was just a fight or flight, and it just kicked in, and it was just my own mom bear came out like, ‘Not on my shift. You’re not taking my dog away.’”

Eventually, both dogs ran off.

“So now the bear only has one person to go after, and it’s me,” Boyle explained. “I would back up five paces and move forward a little bit punching at her. She just didn’t stop.”

That’s when Boyle was saved.

“A biker was coming this direction. He saw it was happening,” Boyle said. “He yelled, so between the two of us yelling, she got scared and ran away.”

Boyle credits the bicyclist and her two pups for saving her life.

“If it weren’t for the biker, I don’t know what the outcome would’ve been,” Boyle said. “They’re just heroes; if it weren’t for him responding, the bear would’ve come up behind us and taken one or all of us out.”

Bear, the terrier, did have some injuries.

“He has puncture wounds on his neck; he was in extreme pain yesterday,” Boyle said. “He has a lot of soft tissue damage, even though he looks fine.”

Kathleen and her husband, Donald, hope what everyone takes away from this story is that you have to be careful around wildlife, especially baby bears.

Meanwhile, tiny heroes will be getting a lot of love for the remainder of Christmas.

“So very spirited and getting lots of hugs,” Boyle said.

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This year was a roller coaster of a year as Americans dealt with hurricanes, quarantine, unemployment, travel restrictions, remote learning, elections and the loss of loved ones to COVID-19.

We take a look back at the stories you read most on winknews.com.

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control.

Lee County resident dies from coronavirus, one of first in the state; another presumptive case confirmed

A 70-year-old Lee County resident, who was a patient at Gulf Coast Medical Center in south Fort Myers, died of COVID-19 on March 5. ––> READ MORE

File: Unemployment website

FAQ: Unemployment Resources

Unemployment issues as a whole were one of our most-read topics of 2020. WINK News assigned reporter Sara Girard as a full-time unemployment reporter. She went to work getting you answers and created an unemployment page to include complete coverage and a Q&A to help navigate the complex reemployment system. ––> READ MORE

A helicopter unit responds to the fire at the rental overflow area of RSW airport Friday, April 3, 2020. Credit: John Broadhead.

Fire destroyed nearly 4,000 cars at RSW rental lot, causing $100M in damage

A huge fire damaged thousands of rental cars near the Southwest Florida International Airport in April, and investigators have ruled the fire accidental, citing potential hot exhaust over dry grass. The 15-acre fire on April 3 destroyed 3,991 vehicles parked at an overflow rental car parking lot. ––> READ MORE

12-year-old Buddah. Credit: WINK News.

SWFL dog owner says possible serious side effects from flea/tick medication

A Southwest Florida pet owner has a warning for others about possible side effects from a popular flea and tick medication. The local dog owner says people’s dogs could end up with lost mobility and limping. We also spoke to a veterinarian about the commonality of these side effects. ––> READ MORE

Now hiring (WINK News)

Companies hiring in SWFL

In March, the coronavirus lockdowns started putting people in Southwest Florida out of work, but the shutdown didn’t negatively impact every business. Grocery stores and delivery are some of the industries that flourished. In response, we created a list of companies that were hiring, and that quickly became one of our most visited pages of the year. If you’re still in need of work, check it out. ––> READ MORE

DJ Conrad Buchanan

Beloved DJ in Lee County dies of coronavirus

DJ Conrad Buchanan died from COVID-19 on March 26. Buchanan was in his late thirties and left behind his wife and two children. He shared a Facebook post about his diagnosis of COVID-19, urging everyone to take the virus seriously. Buchanan’s death was the fourth confirmed in Lee County due to coronavirus. ––> READ MORE

FWC Officer Julian Keen (Credit: FWC)

Off-duty FWC officer shot and killed in LaBelle

An officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) was shot and killed in LaBelle on June 14. Authorities said 30-year-old Julian Keen Jr. was off-duty in the area of Nobles Road and Apache Circle when he was shot. This is near the intersection of SR-78. The Hendry County Sheriff’s Office later arrested Eliceo Hernandez, 20, and charged him with negligent homicide for his death. Keen had been with the FWC since 2014. ––> READ MORE

STATE / NATIONAL

Social Security recipients will automatically get stimulus checks, Treasury says in a reversal

The Treasury Department said that Americans on Social Security will not be required to file a “simple tax return” to receive a stimulus check from the U.S. government. The announcement reversed an earlier statement from the Internal Revenue Service that participants in the federal retirement program would need to file such a return to get the funds. ––> READ MORE

Counting on a stimulus check? Here’s what could affect how much money you get

In April, we reported roughly 9 in 10 American households would soon receive a federal stimulus check to help them stay afloat financially during the recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The report details certain factors that could affect how much you got and how fast you receive payment. ––> READ MORE

Sheriff: Arrests made in ‘massacre’ of 3 fishing buddies in Polk County

Two brothers and a woman were arrested in connection with the “massacre” of three best friends who set out on a fishing trip at a Central Florida lake. One of the suspects, Tony “TJ” Wiggins, 26, had previously been charged with 230 felonies and had been consistently arrested since he was 12. His brother William Robert Wiggins, 21, and girlfriend Mary Whittemore, 27, were also arrested. ––> READ MORE

‘Beast of a snake’ breaks record for largest Burmese python captured in Florida

An invasive Burmese python captured in the Everglades in October broke the state record, measuring 18.9 feet long. The previous record was 18.8 feet long. Ryan Ausburn, a contracted python hunter with the South Florida Water Management District, and Kevin “Snakeaholic” Pavlidis, a contracted python hunter with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, captured the monster-sized python Oct. 2 along the L-28 Tieback Canal about 35 miles west of Miami. ––> READ MORE

CDC shows COVID-19 has high survival rate; doctor still wants to see precautions take

A CDC update in September stated individuals are more likely to survive the coronavirus after contracting it. The health agency says if you have the virus between the ages of 0 to 70, you have a 99% survival rate. And if you’re over 70, the survival rate is nearly 95%. ––> READ MORE

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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.

A man was arrested Friday after deputies say he shot and killed a woman inside a Lehigh Acres home.

Hilario Jose Cruz, 23, faces charges of manslaughter and shooting into an occupied dwelling.

It was not what neighbor Julio Davila expected to wake up to on Christmas morning.

“I got up, and I saw that yellow ribbon that they put around the crime scene, and I said that, ‘This is bad,’” Davila explained.

According to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to a home in the 5300 block of Butte Street in response to a shooting and found a woman’s body with a gunshot wound inside the garage.

Davila lives just two houses over from the crime scene and says he can’t believe something like this happened.

He said children live at the home where the victim was found. “This is horrible. Can you imagine those two little babies the rest of their life?”

Investigators cleared the scene just before 4:45 p.m. Friday afternoon.

“My thoughts are with the victim’s family, especially on a day like today,” Sheriff Carmine Marceno said in an LCSO release. “My top-notch team at the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, my family, is dedicated to working to keep our community safe.”

Davila says he hopes Cruz pays the price for taking a life on Christmas morning.

“He could be in jail for life, but he has committed their families to a life of suffering,” Davila said. “I will be praying for that family because oh, lord, no one would like to have an experience like that.”

Cruz remains in custody at the Lee County Jail. A judge on Saturday set bail at $220,000.

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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.

While COVID-19 is likely what we’ll remember most about 2020, there’s another, positive side to the pandemic: It brought out the good in our community.

From food to toiletries to mosaics to masks, we witnessed a year of giving.

Here’s a look back at some of the inspiring people we met this year.

—

Air Force veteran Tony Mansolillo has worked the frontlines of the pandemic for months now.

“I go out and feed the people in the woods, and I feed the people living in their cars,” he said.

For him, cooking is a labor of love, and he shared the fruits of his labor with anyone needing a helping hand.

“I took it on as a mission.”

—

She wasn’t cooking, but Queen Dorrie made sure no one went hungry.

“When you’ve lived this long, you feel that you have to give of yourself.”

The 90-year-old didn’t let age stop her. She spent many days since March delivering food to seniors who normally get hot meals at the Naples Senior Center.

“I enjoy working; I enjoy delivering this,” she said.

—

Veteran Donald Payton also took on a new mission this year: helping other veterans.

“We give them everything you see in your house: beds, new beds, pots, pans, dishes…”

His “Hearts and Homes for Veterans” nonprofit hands out about 30,000 of those supplies each month.

—

For Pastor Shari Lacey, it’s all about mosaics for mental health.

“Making beauty out of this brokenness,” she said.

Helping others cope, whether it’s COVID-19 or just life.

“I get to break things, so it’s a little stress reliever,” said Amy Turner.

“Really loved breaking stuff,” said Jessica Fletcher.

—

Just in the stitch of time, Jacky Fischer and dozens of her neighbors fired up the sewing machines, making thousands of masks to help those in need.

“We get all the requests in from all the different hospitals and doctor’s offices, a couple of restaurants, we’ve seen them, too; we’ve even sent masks as far as Walter Reed up in Maryland, all over the place.”

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