Gaylend “Zee” Zahn, a San Diego letter carrier, has a special assistant: Roman Toriello, a young man with special needs who enjoys helping Zahn on his route.
Each day, Roman, 16, accompanies Zahn as he makes deliveries in the neighborhood, including opening gates for the carrier.
“Although Roman cannot read a clock, he knows when it’s time to ‘meet Zee’ and ‘deliver the mail’ because he stops watching his cartoons, puts on his sandals and gets his sunglasses and USPS ball cap,” said Tasha Toriello, Roman’s mom.
Zahn said the excitement is mutual — he enjoys spending part of his day with Roman.
“To help him out … just a little every single day makes my heart feel good,” Zahn said.
Piece by piece
To help promote the new Protect Sea Turtles stamps, employees at the Wethersfield, CT, Post Office recently put together a puzzle that features one of the ancient mariners.
Retail associates Deborah Daniels and Ellen Dolezel and Harold Vera, a custodian, are self-described dissectologists — people who love puzzles. And they like to encourage others to take up the hobby, according to Denyse Bailey, Connecticut District safety clerk.
“Puzzles can help improve concentration, short-term memory and visual-spatial reasoning,” Bailey said. “They can strengthen connections between brain cells, which can improve problem-solving skills and logical thinking.”
It’s a date
July 20 was a special day in Carlisle, AR, a small city about 40 miles east of Little Rock: The date matched the local ZIP Code: 72024.
To mark the occasion, the city held an event at a local park with live music, games, vendors, cornhole tournaments and food trucks.
The Carlisle Post Office also got in the action, offering customers snacks and the opportunity to receive a special pictorial postmark.
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