Effingham firefighters are trading time at home for a station potluck and ensuring the community still has coverage over the holiday

By Marie Adamick
Effingham Daily New

EFFINGHAM, Ill. — Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate being with friends, family and loved ones. However, some people work on the holiday and don’t get to spend the holiday with them.

Effingham Fire Department Captain Jeff Landrus and Lieutenant John Kronewitter are working their 24-hour 7 a.m. shift on Thanksgiving this year, but they’re used to rearranging their schedules around the holidays since both have worked for the fire department for over 20 years.

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Effingham firefighters work 24 hours and then have 48 hours off. At the beginning of each year, the department gives each staff member their schedule for the year, which is color-coded for the different shifts they work.

Since Landrus and Kronewitter are working Thanksgiving, they’re both bringing dishes to share with their co-workers for a potluck meal. Landrus will bring a crockpot pizza, and Kronewitter will bring a turkey breast. The local nonprofit FISH will also be bringing the firefighters meals.

“That’s always nice and generous of them,” said Landrus.

Since Landrus is working on Thanksgiving, he and his family celebrated the holiday on Nov. 16.

“It was good. It worked out well,” said Landrus. “I’m just blessed that I’ve got all my family close to me, so… we don’t have to fly or drive too far to go see them.”

Although he and Kronewitter are used to working holidays, celebrating Thanksgiving isn’t the same for Landrus because he can’t watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade with his family, and they can’t come visit him at the fire station.

“It comes with the nature of the job,” said Landrus.

HSHS St. Anthony Memorial Hospital Registered Nurse Kyle Muska, 28, works as a medical care/surgical nurse and has worked on Thanksgiving before. So doing it again this year will not be new for him. During the 2 ½ years Muska has worked at HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital, Thanksgiving and the holiday season have been busy, so he and his family are familiar with rearranging plans.

“We’re missing it with our families, but it’s our duty,” said Muska. “You have to be there for your patients and just give them that high-quality care and comfort on the holidays.”

Muska and his family are planning to celebrate Thanksgiving this year on Friday after his 12-hour shift, but his family is also celebrating the holiday on Thursday. He’s the only person in his family to work in the medical field. His brother works in insurance, and his sister and mother run a cleaning business.

Hospital staff sign up for which holidays they want to work the most and the ones they want to work the least, but Muska says he usually works a lot of the holidays. He and other staff are planning a potluck meal, and the hospital’s cafeteria staff also provides meals for all the hospital staff who are working that day.

“I love taking care of patients on Thanksgiving. It’s very hard on patients, being in a hospital in the first place, let alone being here on a holiday,” said Muska. “Some patients don’t have family. That’s what’s meaningful to me working on holidays is just being there comforting the patients. It’s extra meaningful on a holiday for those ones especially those who don’t have family to comfort and give them the high-quality care they deserve on the holiday.”

Although it feels a little different doing Thanksgiving on another day, it still means the same to him and his family because they still feel the love, joy and peace, he says.

HSHS St. Anthony Memorial Hospital Registered Nurse Julie Zuber, 39, has worked as an obstetrics nurse for over 18 years, and she’s also working on Thanksgiving. For the holiday, she and other staff in the obstetrics unit are bringing in food for a taco bar.

They also made shirts to wear on Thursday that say: “Taking the cutest turkeys out of the oven.”

One of Zuber’s sisters works as a doctor, and another works as a nurse. So the Zuber family is familiar with rescheduling the holiday. Luckily, none of the family members have to travel far.

“It’s kinda like the best of both worlds because we get to support people on the holidays, but then also, we get to celebrate it with our own families, too,” said Zuber. “It’s always a little bit difficult to be away from your own family on the holiday, but it’s always nice to be there for the patients when they have to be away from their family, as well.”

The Zuber family is planning to celebrate the holiday on both Friday and Sunday this year, and Zuber says she is thankful for all her happy and healthy family that she gets to be with, along with not having to be anywhere.

“That’s what I love about St. Anthony. Everybody’s just a family,” said Muska. “Everybody brings in little dishes, dips, stuff like that, and then the hospital brings food in. So we’re not missing out on Thanksgiving here.”

How do you handle working holidays like Thanksgiving, and what traditions help make the day feel special while on duty? Share your experiences below.

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