Thursday, January 16, 2025
The Year of the Snake is here
USPS celebrates Lunar New Year with a stamp ceremony
The Postal Service dedicated its latest Lunar New Year stamp celebrating the Year of the Snake during a ceremony in Boston on Jan. 14.
The Lunar New Year holiday is celebrated in many Asian cultures around the world and historically marks the arrival of spring. It has become a popular observance in the United States, with modern festivities that include parades, special foods and gifts.
“Our Lunar New Year stamp series is extremely popular, and we are very proud of how it highlights and celebrates America’s great diversity,” said Luke Grossmann, the Postal Service’s chief financial officer, who spoke at the event in the Boch Center’s Wang Theatre.
Joining Grossmann at the ceremony were Tiffany Chu, chief of staff to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu; Terri Mock, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center board chair; and Isabel Kim, Asian American Foundation chief financial officer.
The event included performances by Juliet Brownell-Lee and the Wah Lum Kung Fu and Tai Chi Academy Performance Troupe.
Tiffany Chan of WBZ-TV was master of ceremonies.
Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS, designed the stamp featuring an original snake mask created by Camille Chew.
The Year of the Snake stamp is the sixth in the latest series of Lunar New Year stamps, which began in 2020.
The Forever stamp is available in panes of 20 at Post Offices and usps.com.
Off the Clock
She handles the mail, then handles opponents in the ring
This employee is a seven-time boxing world champion
My name is Chevelle Hallback and I’m a mail handler at the Tampa, FL, Processing and Distribution Center. When my day ends there, I go to the gym to train for my role as a professional boxer.
When I was 5, my mother took me to see “Rocky.” While the main character and Apollo Creed were fighting on the screen, my mother jumped out of her seat in the middle of the theater and started yelling at Rocky to “Hit him back! Hit him back!”
Any other child would have been embarrassed, but I felt inspired to do something that would get people that excited. Two years later, I saw Muhammed Ali and Leon Spinks fight. I went to bed wishing I could be a boxer.
Many years later, I saw two women fighting in the ring during the co-main event for a Mike Tyson fight. That was on a Saturday. I went to the boxing gym the following Monday.
You can play football, basketball or soccer, but you don’t play boxing. You’re stepping into a square ring not knowing if you’re even going to come back out alive. The wrong hit to a temple could end your life. You need mental toughness to prepare your body to enter the ring.
In my first fight in 1997, I knocked out my opponent in the first 30 seconds. For my second fight, I got a big head and didn’t train properly. My first fight was in a gym. My second fight was on national TV in front of thousands — and I lost. They played that fight over and over on ESPN II. I went into a depression for two weeks.
But I came back from that to win my next fight. And in my fifth fight, I won a world title.
I’m now a seven-time world champion — and at 52, I’m the oldest boxer to win a world title.
At one point I had my own gym, but when it closed, I needed a new opportunity. I found out the Postal Service needed employees for the holidays. I got hired in 2012 and have been here ever since.
I share the lessons I’ve learned from boxing with my co-workers and the young people I mentor.
Anybody can be beaten at any time, so don’t get bigheaded and don’t take things for granted — prepare yourself. Don’t let age define you and don’t give up.
If you have a desire in your heart, don’t give up on your hopes and dreams.
“Off the Clock,” a column on Postal Service employees and their after-hours pursuits, appears regularly in Link.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Jan. 20
The annual holiday honors the civil rights icon
Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be observed Monday, Jan. 20.
King helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his landmark “I Have a Dream” speech. He also helped pave the way for the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In 1964, at age 35, he became the youngest person at that point to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
He was assassinated four years later.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation designating the third Monday in January a federal holiday in honor of King’s birthday.
The Postal Service has issued several stamps honoring King and his work, including a 1979 Black Heritage stamp and a 2005 release to commemorate the 1955-56 Montgomery, AL, bus boycott.
WestPac Area, MN-ND on top in scanning
A snapshot of Postal Service scanning data shows the national rating was 97.43 percent during the week ending Jan. 10, down 0.04 percent from one week earlier.
The data was collected Jan. 15.
WestPac led the four areas with a rating of 97.74 percent, while Southern ranked last with a 97.13 percent rating.
Among the 50 districts, Minnesota-North Dakota, part of Central Area, ranked first with a 98.42 percent rating, while Alaska, part of WestPac Area, ranked last with a 93.6 percent rating.
Scanning data allows customers to track their mail and packages, which helps USPS deliver excellent service, boost loyalty and drive revenue.
To see the latest data, go to the Informed Visibility website and select “Customer Experience,” followed by “DES 2 Scan Performance.” Postal Service employees must request Informed Visibility access through eAccess.