On April 2nd, 2026 we received an email. It simply stated that our pharmacy license request has been forwarded and we should receive a a license soon. When I read this email, I had to swallow hard. Wow – Pecos Valley Public Services is soon a licensed “pharmacy” – sort of. I couldn’t help but think about about how it all started. About three years ago, a few normal people came together and said: We want to help our community – provide medical care, prevent simple issues from becoming serious and expensive issues. Be there for our neighbors when it matters most. No questions asked.

Others said “You can’t go out and provide medical services without a license.” Understandable – and accordingly, some of us went back to college and earned EMT and EMT-I licenses – others took basic medical training. All while working day jobs and taking care of family obligations. But that was not enough. We were told that we also need an EMS (Emergency Medical Services) license. We had to get many more ducks in a row to satisfy the requirement for the State of New Mexico to get us approved. No public funding. No paid people. All volunteers working with small private grants and donations. We got our EMS license and went to work. During community events, big and small, on the streets and in alleys, in shelters, in peoples homes. In snow storms and during floods, in scorching heat and bitter cold. Nobody ever got paid. No patient got an invoice. We simply did what we went out to do.

Helping people.

But something was still missing. We didn’t have any medications. In order to purchase, store and dispense medications (such as Epinephrine, Diphenhydramine .. ) and to be able to give an injection or an IV if necessary, we also need to have a pharmacy license. And that requires a lot of paper work, suitable storage, inspections and more. A tall order for a small agency with very limited funding.

But if our volunteers made one thing clear from the beginning – we won’t stop doing what needs to be done. Whether it’s regulatory or legal requirements or using 4×4 vehicles to plow through a snow storm to get to a patient. So – we focused on the need to be able to have medications available when necessary. It took almost a year to get the funds, the work, to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s – and today we finally got the email I mentioned in the beginning.

As a director of Pecos Valley Public Services, I am deeply grateful for all the work our volunteers put in, for all the people who helped us, trusted us and supported us along the way. We sure try our very best to never disappoint our community. We will be there whenever you need us.

Michaela Merz, EMT-I, WEMT
Director, Pecos Valley Public Services