Mail models: how letter carriers might save your grandma.

• Author: Marvit, Moshe Z.
• Position: TEN MILES SQUARE - Carrier Alert program

".... such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) ... [shall] become the seat of the Government of the United States"

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

On Monday, July 30, 2012, Long Island letter carrier Mario Serrano was delivering mail when he noticed something wrong. Serrano was in front of a house along his route occupied by a single eighty-seven-year-old woman whom he checked in on six days a week. He discovered mail in the box from Saturday and, according to him, "that's a red flag." He heard running water, and when he rang the doorbell he heard screams for help. Serrano opened the window, entered the house, and found her stuck between her bathtub and her toilet, where she had fallen on Saturday and remained unable to get up for two days. Serrano called the police and waited with her until they arrived.

In the past few years, stories abound of letter carriers who save lives. Where was the Cleveland letter carrier who saved a ninety-one-year-old man's life after noticing piled-up mail and no footprints in the snow; a Houston letter carrier who saved two children from a burning home; an Akron letter carrier who saved a woman who was trapped for six days in her bedroom after an ulcer erupted; a Rye Brook letter carrier who rescued an elderly couple from a burning home; an Idaho mailman who saved a church after the gas had been left on for over twelve hours; and many others.

These stories of letter carriers checking in on elderly or sick residents, or helping people whose lives are in danger, occur every day across the country. In part, this is the result of the Carrier Alert program, which has been run jointly by the Postal Service and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) for more than three decades. To sign up, all you need to do is notify your letter carrier, and he or she will make a special point of checking in on you and your property. The program's literature describes the signs of trouble that letter carriers keep an eye out for, such as "lights burning in midday, pet dogs crying, drawn draperies, or no tracks in the snow."

In a sense, we are all enrolled in the national carrier program, because letter carriers often act if they see something abnormal. In fact, the Postal Service encourages it and considers it part of the services they offer, says Phil Dine, a spokesman for NALC.

Historically, it is not uncommon for the Postal Service to perform services of public good. Pam Donato, community and membership...