By Barbara Morris
All too often, we know very little about the lives of those who serve us, even if that service has been long and done exceptionally well.
I suspect this is true of U.S. Postal Service employees. After all, our own letter carriers come to us at midday when most of us are working either away from our homes or inside — at least in the winter months.
When we go to the Post Office we are in a hurry or other customers are and we try to be considerate of them and get out of their way as soon as possible. When we do have an opportunity to know one of the postal workers in somewhat of a personal way, however, we find them to be wonderful, dedicated people, as a general rule.
The folks in our own Springfield Gardens Post Office exemplify this perfectly. An example of this took place in the Combined Federal Campaign, whose mission is “to support and to promote philanthropy through a program that is employee-focused, cost efficient and effective in providing all federal employees the opportunity to improve the quality of life for all.”
During the early ‘60s, federal employees were approached throughout the year by many different charities. It was recognized by these employees that it would benefit everyone if they had one campaign once a year allowing them to select their choices from a complete list of approved charities at that time.
Thus the CFC became a reality: “the only authorized solicitation of employees in the federal workplace on behalf of charitable organizations.” The list of participating groups is large, indeed: Courts/Congressional/Senatorial Offices; Department of Treasury: Uniformed Services; Post Offices in the five boroughs; Health & Human Services; Department of Justice: Department of Veterans Affairs; Independent Agencies; and Unions.
In our own Springfield Gardens Post Office, John Quesnell was the key person this year for CPC. He and all the contributors not only made their goal of $3,756, they surpassed it by a whopping $6,729! Cheers and thanks to them.
There are not many people I know who almost double the effort asked of them. Their grand total was $10,485. When we consider that the 20-plus stations comprising the Jamaica Post Office were given a goal of $78,000, and their total collection was $88,000, we can see that our Springfield Gardens Post Office folks (as usual) did more than their share.
Besides the satisfaction of knowing their money will be well spent on the important causes they consider close to their hearts, they were given a special “CFC Celebration Breakfast” for participating so generously in “rebuilding lives, rebuilding communities.” And a great breakfast it was.
We expected nothing less because that breakfast was brought to the Springfield Gardens Post Office, (as it was last year for a similar celebration) from Carmichael’s Diner Inc., 117-08 New York Blvd. in Jamaica. Heaping plates of grits, scrambled eggs, two kinds of sausage, hash brown potatoes, hot biscuits, were being balanced in hand, along with orange juice and coffee or tea.
We were all enticed by the early morning aromas of a home kitchen, which was especially pleasing because we could just visit with new and old friends without having to do all the preparations ourselves. It’s always nice having an opportunity to chat, however briefly, with the folks out front, but I must say I also very much enjoy each opportunity I have to say, “Hi, how are things going?” with the many folks who work in the back.
Please try to remember that the United States Postal Service ha been bringing our mail to us reliably since the Pony Express. It is an important part of the history of this country which we hope will be preserved and extended for a long time. The mail is a private way to get your messages across without having anyone else poking into your business.
Besides, all the beautiful stamps the USPS produces and the special gifts you can buy are really works of art we should appreciate along with its employees.
