Port St. Lucie letter carrier earns national recognition at Heroes of the Year ceremony
Letter carriers are in the communities they serve every day and often are the first to notice when something is wrong.
They smell smoke, hear someone calling for help or notice something that just doesn’t seem right. Often, they are the first to respond and lend a helping hand — whether coming to the aid of a customer who has fallen on the sidewalk or comforting a lost child.
Each year, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) highlights the special acts of courage and compassion performed by letter carriers who improve — or save — lives along their routes, by recognizing some of them as NALC’s Heroes of the Year.
Brittany Giles, a letter carrier at the Port St. Lucie Post Office and member of West Palm Beach NALC Branch 169, received an honorable mention at a ceremony held March 27 in Washington, D.C. for helping a child who was being bullied at school.
Last December, Giles was reading Santa letters, and one, tugged at her heartstrings. It was a letter from 10-year-old Camron King. His request: “Have my family come together to have some fun … and to not get bullied at school. And a couple of toys.”
Giles, a six-year letter carrier, went to the letter’s return address where she met Camron’s mother and his grandparents along with Camron, who was born without his left hand and has a muscle nerve disorder.
“I work for Santa and read your letter, but you didn’t say what type of toys you wanted. So, he sent me down here to get a list and bring it back to him,” Giles told Camron, whose eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.
Camron jotted a list of toys for him and his family that he gave to Giles to deliver to Santa at the North Pole.
Giles contacted the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, where deputies Ethan Kirk and Rebecca Ireland pooled their money to buy gifts. Deputy Kirk organized an anti-bullying assembly with police officers at Camron’s school.
After local news covered the story, it took on a life of its own. The national organization Bikers Against Bullying contacted Giles and wanted to do something. They hosted a party at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant and arcade for Camron and his family. Just as he had asked in his letter, he was able to "come together with his family and have some fun."
“It was a great thing to see how many people truly cared and wanted to get involved and be a part of this,” Giles said.
As for Camron, Giles is still a part of his life, seeing him and his family regularly.
“This is my extended family at this point,” she said. “Community is everything. Family is everything. And it doesn’t have to be by blood."
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Port St. Lucie letter carrier earns national recognition at ceremony
