My Hero! The Letter Carrier

By INEZ SHARABY

The United States Postal Service, joined by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, on Thursday launched a program that urges letter carriers to immediately call the emergency 311 response team if they notice something doesn’t seem right along their delivery routes.

“Postal employees often are the first to notice when something goes wrong,” said USPS District Manager Elvin Mercado. “It is not in our job description. No one is required to perform heroic feats. However, our employees’ unique connection with the communities they serve goes deeper than the mail service.”

Postal heroes have performed acts such as uniting lost children with their families, providing  emergency medical care, extinguishing fires, alerting customers of hazards, assisting at traffic accidents, and contacting authorities to conduct health checks on the elderly, disabled and even their own employees, said Mercado.

Last year, 318 postal employees were recognized as heroes.

Ten postal employees stood proud in uniform, their faces beaming as Mercado spoke of their jobs.

Adams praised the USPS employees for going above and beyond their call of duty. Adams said that he received a call from his mother’s mailman who told him that his mother’s mail was piled up and asked him if everything was okay. All was well.

“The Postal employees personify ‘if you see something, say something.’ They’re actually doing something,” Adams said. “ They save peoples lives by going to peoples’ houses and not only putting the mail in the mailbox, but by making sure that the person who is the recipient of that mail receives the necessary first aid when and if it is needed in a timely fashion.”

There have been many stories similar to Adams’ where USPS employees have gone to drop mail and noticed that the mail was piling up and that something might be wrong. These employees have called either family members or 311 to make sure that everything was okay. Many times, these actions have saved peoples lives.

“The new program is ultimately an extension of the selfless acts and great work already being performed by many of our postal employees,” Mercado said.