Special delivery from Du Quoin second graders: Students give thanks for town's letter carriers

Every now and then you get a card or a letter that's a keeper.

That happened the other day when Du Quoin students in Mrs. Rachel Tilley's second grade class wrote and delivered more than two dozen personal letters to the town's letter carriers thanking them for the gift of mail in our community.

Postmaster Steve Dinkins said postal employees, to say the least, were completely caught off guard by the wonderful letters, all handwritten by second graders that made a simple eloquent statement.

One student wrote: "Dear postal worker. Thank you for delivering our mail. Thank you for bringing all the mail to us. Thank you for sending letters to other people. Thank you for delivering post cards. Thanks for sending us information. Thanks for delivering (to) us packages. Thank you for delivering letters. We really appreciate all you do."

Last year, the nation's postal carriers delivered 65.8 billion letters, not including parcels. "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds," indeed another reason to be thankful.