Nurse Summer Elmore checks on a patient through the door in the COVID unit at Central Valley Specialty Hospital in Modesto, Calif., on Tuesday August 18, 2020.
Andy Alfaro
aalfaro@modbee.com
The year 2020 will be remembered as both unforgettable, and one we’d rather forget. It began with word of a little-known virus in January, and turned into a full blown pandemic, leaving more than 34,000 Stanislaus County residents infected with a disease that would wind up killing more than 600 locally in nine months. The year also was marked by marches and protests over the George Floyd killing and the divide in racial equity, the loss of in-person education over the course of two school years, including high school and college graduation ceremonies. The shuttering of some businesses and the financial and emotional impacts on families were too voluminous to count. We also had contentious primary and general elections. Amid all that, thousands in our community, as they often do, rose to offer support to those in need in too many ways to count. They also include our hospital workers, workers on factory lines and in the fields, first responders and educators. As the first of our health care workers this month received what we hope will be thousands of vaccinations touching thousands of the men, women and children who live in and around Modesto and Stanislaus County, we look for brighter days ahead. Happy New Year to all, and may 2021 soon bring the normalcy in our daily lives that deteriorated in the year that was.
Nurse Summer Elmore checks on a patient through the door in the COVID unit at Central Valley Specialty Hospital in Modesto, Calif., on Tuesday August 18, 2020. Andy Alfaro aalfaro@modbee.com
Attendees kneel on the brick pavement for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in an extended moment of silence during a candlelight vigil for George Floyd at 10th Street Place in Modesto, Calif., on Friday, June 5, 2020. 8 minutes and 46 seconds is the time that prosecutors say Floyd was pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer before he died last week in Minnesota. Andy Alfaro aalfaro@modbee.com
First-grade student Kyle Ellman, left, works in socially distanced seating as teacher Katie Martin conducts class at Sonoma Elementary School in Modesto, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020. Andy Alfaro aalfaro@modbee.com
Cris Ewell hugs California Highway Patrol Officer Matt Denton, who performed CPR on her husband, Leonid Kasperovich, when he suffered a heart attack and collapsed at the Home Depot store on Carpenter Road in Modesto on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020. They reuinited Tuesday at the CHP office on Kiernan Avenue. Deke Farrow
Hundreds of Donald Trump supporters drive on Tegner Road to rally for the president’s re-election campaign in Turlock, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020. Andy Alfaro aalfaro@modbee.com
Jessica Egli, center, holds her beers high during a yoga and beer session at Blaker Brewing in Ceres on Sunday morning, Jan. 19, 2020. Deke Farrow
Nurse practitioner Danielle Groce administers a COVID-19 test at a Golden Valley Health Center test station in Ceres, Calif., on Wednesday, March 25, 2020. Medical assistant Maria Aragon, left, helps with translation. GVHC have two drive-thru viral testing sites, one in Ceres and one in Merced, but these are available only for GVHC clients from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a referral from their provider. Andy Alfaro aalfaro@modbee.com
Stylist Kaitlyn Coker gives Carter NeVille, 13, a haircut on the sidewalk outside Revive Salon in Oakdale, Calif., on Saturday, August 1, 2020. Andy Alfaro aalfaro@modbee.com
Linda Silva and Betty Bridge, volunteer co-directors of Riverbank Christian Food Sharing, preparing donations for clients at the food bank in August 2020. ChrisAnna Mink cmink@modbee.com
Members of the California State Militia stand outside the H-B Saloon on Highway 120 in Oakdale, Calif., on Saturday, June 6, 2020. Andy Alfaro aalfaro@modbee.com
Law enforcement supporters call out to motorists on Monte Vista Avenue during a Back the Badge rally in Turlock, Calif., on Saturday, June 27, 2020. Andy Alfaro aalfaro@modbee.com
Nai’lah Brenda, 3, listens during a Black Lives Matter gathering in Turlock, Calif., on Saturday, June 20, 2020. Andy Alfaro aalfaro@modbee.com
Justin Downs prays with other Modesto-area church members who gathered on the roof of the 15-story DoubleTree Hotel in Modesto, California, to pray over the city and for people affected by coronavirus in Modesto, Calif., on Tuesday, April 7, 2020. Andy Alfaro aalfaro@modbee.com
Participants stand outside the Planned Parenthood office on McHenry Avenue during a straight pride rally that brought militia members and the Proud Boys to Modesto, Calif., on Saturday August 29, 2020. Andy Alfaro aalfaro@modbee.com
Demonstrators and counterdemonstrators verbally confront each other during a demonstration in support of George Floyd in Oakdale, Calif., on Wednesday, June 3, 2020. Several hundred people gathered in downtown Oakdale for a demonstration in response to the death of a black man in police custody in Minnesota last week. Andy Alfaro aalfaro@modbee.com
This story was originally published December 31, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
