Daily printout: Aug. 28, 2025

Postal Service employees across the nation spent the summer doing their part to mark the organization’s 250th anniversary.

USPS held a series of special events in late July to celebrate the occasion. In communities large and small, the festivities have continued.

“Two hundred and fifty years ago, the founders saw how a reliable postal system could bind a young nation. Here in Green Bay, every route, every letter and every friendly hello continues that legacy,” Roy Strobl, the local postmaster, said at an event at the Green Bay, WI, Post Office.

At many facilities, employees marked the anniversary with refreshments, colorful decorations and special dedication ceremonies for the new 250 Years of Delivering stamps.

Other communities invited customers to join the celebration.

A special postmark was available at the 60 Post Offices that existed when the postal system began on July 26, 1775.

Meanwhile, the Florida, PR, Post Office hosted a special event where Postmaster Ismael Perez and his employees greeted customers in the lobby.

Other facilities treated the anniversary as a family affair.

At the Neenah, WI, Post Office, the children and grandchildren of employees colored special pictures that were then displayed in the lobby.

“It was a fun way to involve our families and brighten up the space for our customers,” said Johnny Mendoza, the local postmaster.

The Postal Service has named Amit Cholkar as engineering systems vice president, a position he has filled on an acting basis since June.

He succeeds Linda Malone, who has been named applied engineering vice president.

In this role, Cholkar oversees the strategic planning of technology initiatives to support mail, package processing and material handling systems, including the acquisition, development, deployment, testing and integration of new technology and software.

He also oversees the evaluation and quality assurance of new technology systems to increase operational efficiency and meet organizational goals.

Most recently, Cholkar served as technology development and applications senior director.

He also previously served as engineering systems technology planning and analysis manager, facilities planning manager, senior plant manager at the Columbia, SC, Processing and Distribution Center, and plant manager at the Dulles, VA, and Atlanta processing and distribution centers.

Cholkar joined the Postal Service in 2010 as an operations industrial engineer at the Harrisburg, PA, Processing and Distribution Center.

In the 1748 edition of his pamphlet Poor Richard’s Almanack, Benjamin Franklin noted that “when you’re good to others, you’re best to yourself.” Nearly three centuries later, a namesake is drawing inspiration from the first postmaster general’s legacy.

The latter Benjamin Franklin is a mail handler equipment operator at the Las Vegas Processing and Distribution Center. He got his start at USPS in 2021, following in the footsteps of his mother, Lakesha, a retail associate in the city. He dreams of someday becoming a professional boxer, and he volunteers for local charities that help veterans and children.

Franklin has received comments on his name his entire life: “People ask me for a hundred-dollar bill or ask me how it feels to have the name of a U.S. president. I have to remind them Benjamin Franklin was never president.”

Named for his great uncle, Franklin is unsure if the name was inspired by the Founding Father. Nonetheless, he has done research and takes great pride in the postal history associated with his name, as well as the history of the Bucket Brigade, a precursor of fire departments that the first postmaster general helped establish. 

Firefighting, too, is a career Franklin has considered, although he devotes most of his time away from work to boxing. He’s had a trainer from Sin City’s amateur circuit for the past two years. The schedule can be daunting, often allowing for just a quick nap after his postal shift ends at 6 a.m., then heading to his training sessions and putting up his dukes.

Franklin also devotes time to his community, volunteering in logistics for the Las Vegas Honor Ride, which supports veterans’ physical and mental health needs, and the UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation Las Vegas Teddy Bear Run, which raises money for child medical grants.

“Coming from a family with a history of military service, I find the Honor Ride to be especially meaningful,” Franklin said. He’ll be there again in November when the next one sprawls along iconic Las Vegas Boulevard: “I’m always grateful for any opportunity to give back.”

As the Postal Service celebrates its 250th anniversary, Franklin is keenly aware of the importance of his name.

“It’s a lot to live up to,” he said, but he finds it far more inspiring than burdensome. In whatever he does, “I just focus on getting the job done and being great in my own way.”

This article originally appeared in the July 2025 issue of The Eagle magazine.

Labor Day, the holiday celebrating the contributions of workers to the fabric of American life, is Monday, Sept. 1.

The holiday was first celebrated in New York City in 1882. As unions expanded throughout the nation, Labor Day events grew in popularity, and in 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed the bill declaring the first Monday in September a federal holiday.

The Postal Service has more than 640,000 workers.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s website has a history of the holiday, describing it as a tribute “to the creator of so much of the nation’s strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.”

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