Courtesy Photo | BRUNSSUM, Netherlands -- Members of the postal service team at the Brunssum Site of...... read more read more
BRUSSELS – Volunteers offered their help to the community mail rooms at the U.S. Army Garrison Benelux to meet the demands of an increase of mail during both a pandemic and a holiday season.
The winter holiday season is typically a busy time for the community mail rooms, but online shopping received a boost on post from community members, who left their homes less due to COVID-19 and prevention measures.
“People are doing their online shopping because they can’t go to stores and then on top of the Christmas season, you’re normally sending out packages,” said Ashley Dean, the chief of Administrative Services Division for the Directorate of Human Resources. “It was just amplified. It’s been going like that probably since COVID started (for the garrison in March). It’s been very busy like that from the start.”
Five volunteers stepped forward at CMR 450 at SHAPE in Mons, Belgium. Volunteers made themselves available at other garrison community mail rooms but were not called upon. It was at SHAPE where the need was greatest. Several employees had permanently changed stations, so the CMR was missing staff members during one of the busiest times of year.
“It made it harder to keep the mail moving,” said Wesley Cook, postmaster for CMR 450. “We’d probably still be processing holiday mail if they hadn’t come.”
“Our volunteers are amazing people,” said Dean. “We 100 percent appreciate all of their help and support. It takes a person willing to a lot of hard, manual labor for no monetary value.”
Sgt. 1st Class Tony B. Williams, a trombonist from SHAPE International Band, was one of the volunteers at the CMR 450.
“I know they needed help,” he said.
Williams said he and his Family are beneficiaries of the on-post postal service, shopping a lot online themselves. He said one of his motivations for volunteering there was to be able to act as a liaison of sorts, to give a better understanding to those whom he meets about the workings of the CMR.
“In terms of when a package goes from manufacturer to the consumers’ hands, there’s a lot of in-between that has to happen,” he said.
“When we think of mail, I think we’re underestimating all the work that goes into it,” said Dean. “We go to our boxes, we get our mail, we pick up our packages and we walk out. We don’t see what goes on behind the doors.”
The volunteers typically worked four-hour shifts, during which time they would unload large purple bags of mail from the delivery truck, cut open the bags, sort the pieces of mail, mark what mailbox the pieces belong to, hand packages to customers, and load packages onto trucks taking them away.
The process is physically laborious, said Dean, who, though not registered as a volunteer, put in time there to help operations run smoothly. But Dean deemed the effort worthwhile.
“Postal is more important than people realize,” she said. “That’s how we communicate with outside of post. That’s how people reach home.”
Volunteering at the garrison’s postal locations does not end at the holiday season. Community members 18 years and older need to pass a basic security background check. Once they have been cleared by the military police, their names can go on a call roster.
“They can volunteer throughout the year,” said Cook. “It doesn’t have to be the holiday season.”
Williams recommended the experience and recommended volunteering.
“There’s nothing like volunteering,” he said. “I truly believe in perspective, and I believe if more people saw what other people have to go through, we would be more loving in this world.”
| Date Taken: | 01.22.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 01.25.2021 02:48 |
| Story ID: | 387374 |
| Location: | BRUSSELS, BRU, BE |
| Web Views: | 20 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Volunteers keep mail running through holidays, by Bryan Gatchell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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