Six letter carriers who set a special standard of service, dedication and friendship with their alert observations, cool-headed reactions, and exceptional humanity and sacrifice in the face of suffering were honored last month as NALC’s 2002 Heroes of the Year.

“If we didn’t already know it, last September 11 showed us that heroes walk among us every day,” NALC President Vince Sombrotto told the more than 150 people attending the ceremony, referring to those who sacrificed themselves in the terrorist attacks.

“They are ordinary people like you and like me. But they are also extraordinary people,” he said. “Often their heroic actions are quite dramatic, but they can also be quiet actions—and that is the case with the brothers and sister we honor today.”

The presentations were made September 18 at a Washington luncheon held just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol and attended by NALC’s resident national officers, leaders from the labor and postal community, and other guests.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney (at left) was among the distinguished guests and he had high praise for the award winners and all letter carriers and other postal employees.

Since the events of September 11, when so many union members distinguished themselves, Sweeney said, the nation has begun to realize that “workers are heroes, and not just the police and the fire fighters,” but also “the men and women who make this the most efficient, economical and safest postal service in the world.”

“You are heroes every day,” Sweeney said, “every one of you.”

President Sombrotto began the event with the announcement of a new award category—Special Carrier Alert Rescue. “This is an award for carriers who do not risk their own lives,” he explained, “but who, due to their alert observations, save their customers’ lives.” The rescues may be part of the official NALC/USPS Carrier Alert program or “unofficial” ones based on carriers’ unique knowledge of the neighborhoods where they deliver.

The 2002 Heroes of the Year, selected by a panel of independent judges, are:

Paul D. Wagoner, Cumberland, MD Br. 638, National Hero of the Year.
Jeffrey M. Krahn, Aurora, IL Br. 219, National Humanitarian of the Year.
Catherine S. McGraw, Dedham, MA Br. 764, Eastern Region Hero of the Year.
Kevin D. Word, Benton Harbor, MI Br. 560, Central Region Hero of the Year.
Salvador A. Lopez, Grand Junction, CO Br. 913, Western Region Hero of the Year.
Ronald J. Beattie, Palatine, IL Br. 4268, Special Carrier Alert Award.

Also among the guests attending were many family members and friends of the heroes and local NALC representatives. Region 13 NBA Dick Gentry and RAA Tim Dowdy led a group honoring Brother Wagoner that also included former Cumberland Br. 638 President Bill Elliott and member Doug Pollard. Aurora Br. 219 President Ken Christy and member Brian O’Leary made the trip with Brother Krahn, and Vice President Frank Harding represented Dedham Br. 764 in solidarity with Sister McGraw.

Other notable members of the audience were Postal Rate Commission Chairman George Omas and Commissioner Dana Covington; USPS Executive VP and Chief Financial Officer Richard Strasser and USPS Manager, Labor Relations Doug Tulino, along with other USPS officials; President Gus Buffa of the Rural Letter Carriers and other NRLCA officers; President Wally Olihovil of the National Association of Postmasters of the United States; and President Steve LeNoir of the National League of Postmasters.

The independent panel of judges—Jordan Biscardo, AFL-CIO Senior Community Services Liaison, United Way of America; Director Shelby Hallmark of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, U.S. Department of Labor; and Deputy Fire Chief Robert Allwang of Montgomery County, MD—also came to honor the heroes.

The heroes were selected from carriers whose deeds were reported in The Postal Record between July 2001 and June 2002. The judges declined to present a Branch Service Award this year, citing the relatively small number of reports over the contest year. Branch officers are strongly encouraged to contact The Postal Record at NALC Headquarters with reports and photographs of local union charitable projects, as well as reports of individual members’ humanitarian activities and heroic efforts for inclusion in the Proud to Serve section.

	NALC President Vince Sombrotto (l.) expresses admiration for Hero of the Year Paul Wagoner for donating one of his kidneys to patron Dave Phillips. “You had plenty of time to reconsider, but you went ahead and did this,” he said.

National Hero of the Year:
Paul D. Wagoner,
Cumberland, MD Br. 638

Paul Wagoner took the cliche about giving someone a new lease on life to heart—when he saw how his patron Dave Phillips was suffering, he decided to make an extraordinary individual sacrifice. The NALC member gave the ailing man one of his kidneys and released him from the tedium of dialysis and the anguish of donor waiting lists.

The transplant operation occurred May 5, 2001 and it was one of only about 525 among the more than 13,000 kidney transplants performed last year that involved an unrelated living donor.

Today, the 18-year letter carrier reports his 68-year-old patron is “doing great. He’s still on some medication, but he’s been working on his ’64 Mustang, mowing the lawn and getting around. The kidney’s functioning fine.” And Wagoner also is fully recovered from a procedure that “was really simple for me.”

“It was a lot tougher on my wife,” the 42-year-old said. “I was laying in bed sleeping or eating ice most of the time. She was staying awake, worrying, right at my side, the whole time—except when I was in the operating room!”

Despite his modest assessment, for the courageous decision to make a most uncommon sacrifice for a patron, Paul R. Wagoner of Cumberland, MD Br. 638 was chosen as NALC’s 2002 National Hero of the Year.

Wagoner got to know the Phillips family over many years. Jean Phillips, Dave’s wife, runs a store called Uniform Village located on a stretch of the National Highway that Wagoner serves on his route in historic Cumberland in the Maryland panhandle.

“Her shop is near the beginning of my route and we talk when I stop in with the mail. She’s just a great person. No matter how bad my day might have started out, she can always put a smile on my face,” said Wagoner. “Not only is the shop on my route, they live on the route now, and at one time all of their four children and 10 grandchildren lived on it, too.”

Dave Phillips, a retired elementary school teacher and principal, had been on dialysis for five years and had a failed kidney transplant from a cadaver in December 1999. The waiting list for organs is long and no family members were suitable donors.

After learning of the failed transplant, Wagoner started thinking about a living donation. With the support of his wife Margie, he began researching and after consulting with one of the Phillips’ daughters, he made the offer.

Tests locally and at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore found him to be an ideal match and they decided to go ahead.

“We tried to keep it quiet,” Wagoner said, and nearly succeeded. Besides the immediate families, “only my shop stewards”—Jim Lambert and then-Branch 638 President Bill Elliott—“the postmaster and my supervisor knew.”

“Not even my parents knew about it until a week before,” he said.

Wagoner’s kidney was removed laparoscopically, “where they make small incisions and put a little camera inside you,” the carrier said. “I’ve got a three-inch scar by my belly button.”

“I was out of the hospital in three days and off work for two weeks,” he said, but then missed two more weeks with a common post-operative infection.

As for the future, Margie Wagoner, who became the family’s medical expert, says that only about 2 percent of living donors experience kidney problems. “God watches out for them,” she said.

The Wagoners have two children, 15-year-old Stephanie and Brian, 11, who “thought the operation was awesome,” his father said.

Wagoner, who was featured in the January 2001 Postal Record, hasn’t become an advocate for living organ donation, but said people have recognized him and asked about his experience. “I was at a county fair when a woman came up to me and asked me. She was hoping to donate a kidney to her husband and wanted to know what it was like,” he said.

	NALC Executive Vice President Bill Young shares a laugh with Humanitarian Jeff Krahn (l.), an irrepressible fund- raiser whose numerous community service projects improve the lives of residents in Aurora, Illinois.

National Humanitarian of the Year:
Jeffrey M. Krahn,
Aurora, IL Br. 219

Jeff Krahn is like a force of nature, a gusty rain storm that keeps rattling the roof, only he’s shaking you down—in a friendly way—for a few bucks here and a few hours of time there. It’s always for a good cause and your real problem is that it’s hard to say “no” to this big-hearted letter carrier.

“It may sound corny, but I truly believe that people can make a difference in the lives of others,” said Krahn, who one of his friends describes as “a con man with a cause” for his ability to cajole donations to benefit the less fortunate.

The 46-year-old Krahn has been director of Aurora, IL Br. 219’s community service programs since 1998. That’s put him up front in more than a dozen projects from a semi-annual post office blood drive to the hugely successful Adopt-A-School program he conceived that has raised more than $19,000 in five years.

What’s more, outside the context of the branch, he does extensive volunteer work and helps out several local charities on their fund- raising committees.

Based on those activities, and more as yet untold, Jeffrey M. Krahn of Aurora, IL Br. 219 was named NALC’s 2002 National Humanitarian of the Year.

The part of Aurora where Jeff Krahn has delivered mail for most of the past nine years is “lower-middle, blue-collar working class,” a typical neighborhood in the city 40 miles west of Chicago.

“This is where individuals really can make a difference, close to home,” he said. “You see all the big problems in the world and it looks like too much. But here in your community, the problems you see every day, you can do something about.”

Krahn, who was featured in the January 2001 Postal Record, has a boyish enthusiasm that belies the serious determination he brings to helping those in need.

Ken Christy, president of Branch 219, remembers when the new member—a former restaurant manager—started showing up at union meetings. “It wasn’t too long before Jeff got the reputation as the guy who was always getting up asking for money for something,” Christy said, adding, “Jeff’s very easy to talk to, and he’s also very hard to say ‘no’ to.”

The great compromise came when Krahn asked for $50 for learning disabled children at a school on his route. Instead, Christy suggested he put together a fund-raiser and “before you knew it, we had a program with several hundred dollars and no name.”

That’s when Adopt-a-School was born. For this school year, collections topped $5,000 to buy supplies for distribution to nearly 20 public and private schools.

Aurora Branch 219 received NALC’s National Branch Service award in 2000 for its community projects, many of which Krahn heads as “director of charitable works,” a position created for him. This year’s Humanitarian of the Year honor recognizes that there’s a point where the branch effort ends and the lone letter carrier is shouldering the load.

Christy counts at least 13 branch-related projects Krahn developed or helps direct, including an Easter Basket program for needy children and seniors and a used cell phone drive for a battered women’s shelter.

The ever-energetic Krahn has a special knack for fund-raising, too, built on endless ingenuity and apparently shameless bravado. He’ll walk up to a fellow carrier on the work floor and casually ask for $5, then explain it’s going toward some cause. His signature “Take a Sinner to Church” scheme demands a donation to Adopt-a-School in exchange for his attendance with your family at Sunday’s service.

On a personal level he devotes time to projects of the Association for Individual Development, where his wife Janet works helping people with disabilities. Their daughter Amy, 19, actively supports both parents’ good works.

And Krahn doesn’t seem to be leaving the future to chance. Earlier this year he helped Galen Norman, whose father’s business is on his route, with his Eagle Scout project. Galen wanted to place a new headstone at the grave of Dr. Bernard Cigrand, an Aurora dentist who led the campaign that prompted Congress to officially recognize June 14 as Flag Day in 1949.

Krahn gave the young man fund-raising tips and even turned over the names of some of his most dependable donors. When the project was completed, he created and presented to Galen a “Letter Carrier Community Service Award,” featuring a framed 80-year-old pamphlet on the flag written by Cigrand.

Who knows, but with inspiration like that, Galen Norman may grow up to be the next Jeff Krahn, a whirlwind whooshing through some workplace, whipping along dollars and volunteers for some greater cause.

	NALC Executive Vice President Bill Young congratulates Eastern Region Hero Catherine McGraw. Looking on is Central Region Hero Kevin Wood.

Eastern Region Hero of the Year:
Catherine S. McGraw,
Dedham, MA Br. 764

Catherine McGraw was working in an apartment complex when a smoke alarm began whining in a unit where she had no deliveries. Seeing no one else around, the veteran letter carrier back-tracked to investigate—and discovered an elderly patron who had set her clothing ablaze in a cooking accident, then lapsed into shock with her garments still burning.

McGraw was intent on her next delivery May 8, 2001 when the smoke alarm pierced her awareness. “It was about 9:30 and I was headed toward another building in the complex when I heard it, and under it, another sound I couldn’t quite identify. It wasn’t a scream, but it was human.”

Entering the two-story building, the 19-year carrier’s radar led her to one of four first-floor apartments. The door was ajar and despite the acrid haze filling the room, McGraw pushed her way inside. She quickly found the 79-year-old resident slumped in the bathroom, dazed and trying to splash water on her still-burning clothes. Fire was spreading in the room as well.

Grabbing a small pail, McGraw doused the flames, then opened a window and shouted for help, raced back into the living area and found the phone to call 911, and returned to comfort the victim until EMTs arrived.

For her alert observation, swift and effective response, and cool-headedness in the face of a horrifying situation, Catherine McGraw of Dedham, MA Br. 764 was named NALC’s 2002 Eastern Region Hero of the Year.

Sister McGraw comes from a letter carrier family. Her father was a letter carrier and encouraged her to take the test after she graduated from college. It seemed like a good idea, since she had just received a degree in social work at a time state agencies were cutting jobs, and she’s been happy with the career decision. Her husband, Bruce, recently resigned from the Postal Service after a 16-year carrier career to pursue other interests.

The dramatic incident took place on the route McGraw has walked for 15 years. Fire officials speculated that something Susan Mitchell was cooking caught fire and in her efforts to extinguish it, her clothing was engulfed, perhaps as she moved around the room and even opened the door to call for help. By the time McGraw arrived, the elderly woman had staggered into the bathroom.

When McGraw, 42, got to the apartment door, “It all came together at once. I heard a moan, I smelled the smoke, and I saw the haze.” Once inside the efficiency unit, a fast search led her to the elderly woman “sitting on the toilet, turned toward the sink, trying to splash water on herself.

“Her clothes were still on fire, what was left of them,” McGraw recalled. “The rug at her feet was burning and the towels on the rack behind her were on fire, too.”

Using a plastic pail that was on the floor, the letter carrier quickly splashed the flames with water, then opened the window, both to clear the smoke and to yell for someone to call 911. After finding the phone and placing an emergency call herself, she returned to Mrs. Mitchell’s side.

“I knew she was in shock. I just kept telling her, ‘Honey, it’ll be alright. Hang on, help is coming.’” But when she heard sirens in the distance, McGraw realized the complex had a confusing layout and ran outside to direct fire fighters and EMTs to the right address.

With the victim in good hands, McGraw returned to her route—and just a few stops down the road found her hands shaking. “It had a ‘Twilight Zone’ quality to it,” she said. “I asked myself, ‘Did that really happen?’” Otherwise, her only discomfort was the embarrassment she felt about the publicity her efforts received.

She visited Mrs. Mitchell in the hospital several times, but the woman, who suffered second- and third-degree burns over 70 percent of her body, died after spending five months in intensive care and the special burn unit.

	Michigan letter carrier Kevin Word was honored as Central Region Hero on September 18 in Washington, DC for saving a two-year-old from two ferocious Rottweiler dogs who attacked her.

Central Region Hero of the Year:
Kevin D. Word,
Benton Harbor, MI Br. 560

Providing a bit of assistance to a sister carrier put Kevin Word on a street he rarely saw on May 16, 2001. It was chance, or some unknowable force, that put him there at the beginning of his day’s rounds. But it was his personal courage that saved the life of a two-year-old girl being attacked by two blood-crazed Rottweilers.

“Usually when I help out another carrier, I tack it on at the end of my day. I like to get my route done,” the 32-year-old Word said. “But for some reason, that day something made me want to go over there first.”

This story has a happy ending because he did. As he drove down Territorial Road near the shores of Lake Michigan, Word thought he saw a family playing with a pair of dogs, but as he got closer, the three-year carrier realized that two women, one grandmotherly and the other fairly stout, were desperately trying to distract a pair of 75-pound Rottweilers.

As Word pulled to a stop, one dog snatched tiny Rakeia Carruthers. “He grabbed her by the thigh and dragged her down off the porch.”

Without concern for his own safety, Word immediately ran to the rescue, pummeling the beasts one after the other until the toddler could be spirited safely away from the snarling marauders. For his swift and selfless action in the face of savage danger, Kevin D. Word of Benton Harbor, MI Br. 560 was named NALC’s 2002 Central Region Hero of the Year.

When he came on the scene that spring morning, Word didn’t hesitate. “I’ll tell you how instant my reaction was,” he said, laughing about it 16 months later. “I had two cans of dog repellent right there in front of me and I forgot both of them!”

When Word reached the first animal “I kicked it in the ribs and backside until it let go.” But as he chased the bob-tailed canine away, the second animal struck. “I turned around and the other one had her, so I went back to kicking and punching. I was yelling at the top of my lungs, too. It seemed to disorient them.”

With the dogs temporarily at bay, Word called for one of the women to take the child, but she stumbled and was barely able to scramble away as the dogs charged back. The letter carrier found himself “doing a dance between the two dogs, with the girl behind me—one would rush, and when I’d turn, the other would move in. They weren’t interested in me. They were after her.”

That’s when Word spotted an unusual weapon—a six-foot step ladder leaning against the side of the house. With a quick move, he managed to reach it and lifted it “up over my head, trying to be as big and ferocious as they were. I was still yelling and screaming. Believe me, by this time I was way over the top.”

With the animals stymied for the moment, one of the women managed to get the girl into the house. Word then pitched the ladder at the dogs and bolted inside, snapping jaws at his heels.

Police arrived and killed one dog on the spot—“it took two shots to put him down,” Word said. Animal control captured the other dog and removed a third from the property; they also were destroyed.

“The irony of all this was that they were their dogs,” Word said. “Or, really, they belonged to a man who lived there and took care of them, so the women weren’t that familiar with them.”

The toddler’s injuries, though serious, required only a one-night hospital stay. Thanks to his nimble footwork and bravado, Word was unscathed and resumed his deliveries after talking with authorities.

Word, who was accompanied to Washington by his wife Vanette, is vice president of the 31-member Benton Harbor branch. He received several hometown honors: a plaque from the City Council, presentations by the Elks Club and Kiwanis, and a Special Achievement Award from USPS.

	Sal Lopez (l.) tells a reporter how he jumped head-first through a car window to stop a runaway vehicle.

Western Region Hero of the Year:
Salvador A. Lopez,
Grand Junction, CO Br. 913

Key elements for Sal Lopez story:
1) Car coming down sidewalk;
2) Seven-year-old in driver’s seat;
3) Busiest intersection in town;
4) Letter carrier jumping into car window;
5) Disaster averted.
Check, check, check, check, check—let’s begin.

It was a bright March mid-afternoon and Sal Lopez was walking along his route, eyes down, when he heard a noise. Looking up, he was startled to see a car coming down the sidewalk straight toward him.

Following his first instinct—“get out of the way” —Lopez scrambled aside, but “my second thought was I have to try to stop that before it hits someone or runs into something,” the carrier recalled.

Then he noticed a real complication—the person behind the wheel was his young patron Nicholas Reyes, age 7. “He was just freaked out. He was crying and trying to drive,” Lopez said.

Chasing the slow-moving vehicle, the carrier was able to reach through the open driver’s window and steer the car onto the street. But he couldn’t open the door or reach the ignition, so as the vehicle reached a busy intersection, Lopez lunged through the window and jerked on the parking brake, bringing it to a halt before it caused a major pile up.

For ignoring personal danger in a baffling and perilous situation and responding effectively without hesitation, Salvador A. Lopez of Grand Junction, CO Br. 913 was named NALC’s 2002 Western Region Hero of the Year.

Brother Lopez, who with his wife Gloria has four children ages 17 to 21, has a letter carrier sister “Lupe” (Maria Guadalupe Lopez), a member and former shop steward of San Diego Branch 70. He was honored earlier by the Carnegie Hero Fund, which presented him with one of its highly regarded national awards.

Lopez has carried mail for 28 years. He was making his usual rounds on March 5, 2001 when little Nicholas decided to play chauffeur. The keys were in the ignition and the car had been left in first gear, so when the youngster turned the key, the vehicle lurched and the engine fired up, beginning the harrowing journey.

Once he evaded the oncoming car, Lopez dropped his satchel and began his pursuit. “I was reaching through the window, helping him steer,” the 50-year-old carrier recalled. The car bounced off the curb and into the street—solving only part of the problem as it sideswiped a parked vehicle and headed toward “one of the busiest intersections in town.”

Unable to both hold the wheel and open the door or reach the ignition, Lopez quickly concluded he had only one course of action and leaped, pulling himself through the window and into the car.

Grabbing the parking brake between the bucket seats, he pulled it up as hard as he could.
With the carrier’s legs dangling out the window, the car slowed, traveling a few feet more before it hit the rear of a van at the intersection and stopped, killing the engine.

The impact left the young driver with only bruises and caused minimal damage to the vehicles involved, but letter carrier Lopez suffered three broken ribs—a condition he didn’t realize until much later.

“After I talked with the police, I went back and finished my route. It wasn’t until about three hours later, when the adrenaline was down, that I really noticed,” he said. It took about eight weeks before he was feeling 100 percent, he said.

Reflecting on the incident 18 months later, Lopez recalled bits of information that made his heroics all the more important. “That is one of the two busiest intersections in town and it was about 3:30 or 4 o’clock—our rush hour,” he said. “And the school kids were just getting out at that time.” That means little Nick’s joy ride could have led to a real tragedy. But it didn’t, thanks to one letter carrier’s quick thinking, quick feet and the “Lopez leap.”

	President Sombrotto presents certificate to Palatine, IL letter carrier Ron Beattie, first winner of NALC’s Special Carrier Alert Award, presented to honor both the recipient and the uncounted thousands of letter carriers across the nation whose keen attention and caring save patrons from peril each year.

Special Carrier Alert Award:
Ronald J. Beattie,
Palatine, IL Br. 4268

When Saturday’s mail was still uncollected one Monday last fall, Ron Beattie knew something was amiss. He’d been nurturing a friendship with 87-year-old Marion McGinnis for years and that special connection proved a life saver when the letter carrier discovered the elderly woman dehydrated and semiconscious on her kitchen floor.

“It wasn’t right that she hadn’t taken in the mail, so I went around back to check,” said Beattie, who has helped Mrs. McGinnis with odd jobs, carried groceries, and even worked to get her curbside mailbox moved up to her house.

Looking in the back door, the letter carrier didn’t see his friend, but did notice plastic bags scattered across the floor. That was enough evidence for the 55-year-old carrier. He called 911 and when police arrived minutes later and broke in, they found Mrs. McGinnis just out of sight on the kitchen floor, wearing only a nightgown.

“I took hold of her hand and she was cold, super cold,” Beattie remembered. “I told her, ‘Marion, it’s Ron. You’ll be okay.’ I covered her with some towels and she really started to tremble.” She was taken to the hospital and made a full recovery.

For his alert reaction and deep personal connection with the patrons on his route, Ronald J. Beattie of Palatine, IL Br. 4268 was selected as the first winner of the NALC’s Special Carrier Alert Award, presented to honor both the recipient and the uncounted thousands of letter carriers across the nation whose keen attention and caring save patrons from peril each year.

Beattie, a 23-year carrier, said he accepted the honor in that spirit. “Working in the post office, you know about all those others, what they do, how deserving they are. We have a thousand of them every day in this country.”

Nonetheless, Brother Beattie’s relationship with his patrons is special. “I can’t say all the nice things he’s done for me, because I’m afraid he might get in trouble,” Mrs. McGinnis said in an interview with a local newspaper. “He’s the best in the world.”

It turned out she had felt faint and gotten down on the floor rather than risk a fall, then was unable to get back up. She lay on the cold floor at least 48 hours and it was doubtful she would have lasted much longer in her dehydrated condition, authorities said.

Her plight could have gone unnoticed, too, in the distractions of the following days—the date Ron Beattie found his stricken friend and patron was September 10, 2001. Instead, she returned home in good shape after a couple weeks’ medical care.

Sadly, a recent city-wide route realignment means that, after years of service, Mrs. McGinnis is no longer on Beattie’s route—“by about three buildings. But I still see her all the time,” he said. In fact, the afternoon this September when he spoke with The Postal Record he reported, “I just saw her today. I was over cleaning out her gutters. The other day she called me and said, ‘Ron, I need some stamps,’ so I brought some over and gave her some stamps-by-mail stuff.”

Beattie, who with his wife Judith has a son and three daughters, said he tries in different ways to help his patrons, especially the elderly people on his route. “We’ll all be like that one day,” he said, chuckling. “We need to take care of each other.”

“I do a little smoothing out, helping with paperwork and red tape, that kind of thing,” he said. “A lot of people don’t want to go out of their way, but I like to. For a lot of people, the mail carrier is one of the only people they see all day. You want to make their day special. Especially with what’s happening in the world today.”