Daily printout: Dec. 26, 2024

Postal Service employees aren’t just busy at work.

Since its debut in January, Link’s “Off the Clock” feature has told you how some employees spend their free time.

Among them: George Collins, a Los Angeles general expeditor who is a gifted painter.

“I could always draw, and when I was in school and did a painting, teachers would display it in my classroom or other classrooms. I had a gift,” Collins said.

Another painter — Don Doheny, an Easton, MD, distribution operations manager — specializes in World War II scenes, while Brett Swanson, a Mystic, CT, letter carrier, is an artist of a different kind: He creates comic books.

Other employees have musical talents, including Christian Johnston, a Salt Lake City customer relations coordinator who performs in musical theater; Mike Maple, a Marquette, MI, letter carrier who has his own rock band, Liquid Mike; and Jacob Howley, a Washington, DC, attorney who is front man for Corned Beef and Hash, a band that plays an eclectic mix of musical genres.

“Off the Clock” also profiled several athletic employees, including Ishé Oluwa Kamau Ali Smith, a Las Vegas letter carrier and former prizefighter; Cesar Guerrero, a Los Angeles Postal Police officer and golfer; and Dallas Crawley, a Merrifield, VA, acting engineering systems maintenance supervisor who coaches youth basketball.

There were also nature enthusiasts, including Solomons, MD, Postmaster Theresa Smith, who volunteers as a Chesapeake Bay storyteller; Selden, NY, Postmaster Valarie Faria, who raises butterflies; and two scuba divers: Hope, ID, Postmaster Douglas Lowe and Charlitha Arney, a Minneapolis customer service operations manager.

Other “Off the Clock” subjects told us how they spend their time giving back to their community, including two volunteer firefighters: Ozona, TX, Postmaster Megan Beecher-Kennison and Statesboro, GA, Postmaster Angel Castro.

“You must have the heart for this kind of work,” Castro said. “When everybody is running out of a house on fire, we’re running in.”

Check out the “Off the Clock” archive for more stories about Postal Service employees and their after-hours pursuits.