Community giving back to postal carriers during outbreak

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- A South Bend woman is taking steps to make sure postal carriers have what they need to stay safe and healthy during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Michele Feehan created goody bags filled with sanitary products for her postal carrier to help keep them safe.

“The people who have to be out there, need to be protected,” Michele Feehan said, who lives in South Bend.

That is what inspired Michele Feehan. Feehan’s sister is a postal carrier and when she checked in to see how she was staying safe while working with mail from all over the world during the outbreak, the answer surprised her.

“She said we have no gloves, we have no masks, we have no sanitary wipes of any kind,” Feehan said.

Feehan decided that she wanted to lend a helping hand.

“And I thought—these are people who are working for us,” Feehan said. “They’re getting mail from all over the world and they have no protection.”

Feehan filled bags to leave for her postal carrier stocked with tissues, hand sanitizer, wipes, gloves and even gum.

“And a little note and I thanked him for having to be out there because it’s scary,” Feehan said. “We don’t need masks in our homes and we don’t need gloves in our homes…we only need them when we’re going out and since we’re self-quarantining, we can share.”

Feehan even took to the Nextdoor community group app to spread the word about her idea and encouraged others to do the same.

“We’re all in the same boat and we’ll get through it,” Feehan said.

The post gained attention and more people joined in. One woman even received a thank you note from her postal carrier.

“We’re so much stronger than we think we are,” Feehan said. “We have so much power as individuals to reach out and help each other and a little bit from everybody goes a very long way.”

Feehan plans to continue putting the bags together weekly as a thank you for her postal carrier and hopes others in the Michiana community will join in with the small gesture, that goes a long way.