PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — Shelby Hollis has been getting ready for a much needed break.

“It’s been a little bit of a nightmare to be honest. It’s been pretty tough,” she sighed. “As a nurse, I couldn’t take any time off particularly because of COVID.”

Just like many first responders and front liners like herself, she's been working non-stop since the pandemic began.

“Traumas don’t stop and regular illnesses, heart attacks and strokes and those kinda things don’t stop, and having COVID patients on top of that,” Hollis explained. “It has made people who may not be facing the end of their lives get there quicker. Instead of losing some of my patients, I lost a lot of them.”

But her work wasn't the only thing that weighed heavily on Hollis' mind. Her worries extended to the home front.

“Our family’s been through a lot. My husband’s a police officer," she said. “Our son, my stepson, lost his mother in the line of duty in 2014.”

His mother, Jessica Hollis, was a Travis County Senior Sheriff’s Deputy who drowned on the job.

“Tomorrow’s not guaranteed, but we’re painfully aware of that because of my work and because of his work,” she wept.

So, as soon as Shelby Hollis secured a day off, she took it. She packed up her paddle boards, snacks, and family.

“With a lot of prayer, a lot of time in the water, anytime we got to sneak away,” she said.

Hollis, along with dozens of other front liners and first responders drove to Lake Austin to set up just south of Mansfield Dam. They were about to take part in Get Out Girl's Paddlejam, a six-mile paddle boarding event dedicated to emergency workers' mental wellness.

“They’ve been working non-stop,” event organizer, Cindy Present said. “They’re out in the front lines for us constantly. The things they deal with that we don’t even get to deal with in our lives and then they take it home with them. When we deal with that type of stress and anxiety in our jobs, we need a way to release it.”

The day on the lake provided mental and emotional release Hollis needed, especially in the time of COVID-19.

“The water is our place where we go to let go of all of that,” she said.