A Holiday Story

Jay Killackey
Executive Vice President

Postal employees, supervisors, managers and postmasters go out of their way for their customers every day of the year, but especially during the holiday season. I want to share a story from my past that really shows how much postal employees care about their customers.

Before I came to serve NAPS at headquarters, I was a station manager in a large facility outside of Boston. Just before Christmas a letter carrier picked up a handwritten note out of a collection box. It was just an old tattered piece of paper, without an envelope. It was a dear Santa letter from a little boy named Carlos.

In the letter, Carlos wrote that he was seven years old and lived with his mother and had a brother and a sister. He said that his mother’s boyfriend used to hit his mother and make her cry. Carlos said that his mother told him that she didn’t have much money so Christmas wouldn’t be good for Carlos and his brother and sister.

Carlos’ letter to Santa had a simple request; Carlos asked if Santa would make his mother’s boyfriend stop hitting her. Then Carlos closed with one more request. Carlos said he didn’t want anything for himself but he did ask if Santa could give just one present for his brother and sister so they would have something for Christmas.

When the letter was turned in the carriers in the unit started asking around the neighborhood to find a seven year old boy named Carlos. It didn’t take long to identify where Carlos lived and the Santa letter was turned over to the police. The police took care of the boyfriend. But, now someone had to take care of the other request that Carlos made.

All the employees in the office were so moved by the letter and the selflessness of little Carlos that a collection garnered enough money to stuff the back of an LLV with Christmas presents. A letter carrier who regularly donned a Santa suit before Christmas drove the truck to the house. With the help of several elves wearing carrier uniforms, Santa made a special delivery of presents to children who otherwise may have had nothing for Christmas.

There is no group of employees in any business that cares more about their customers than postal employees. Perhaps you may be wiping tears from your eyes about now because you too know of stories like this in your own community and how postal employees stepped up and reached out to help customers.

Perhaps you may want to reach out and help someone less fortunate this holiday season. Happy holidays!