15 December, 2014
Around 60 students were sworn in to the Elmwood School Wee Deliver program by Hopkinton and Woodville Postmaster Carl A. Zagame,the program allows students to run their own post office. In the program students create posters, design stamps, write letters and learn the general operations of the post office. The program helps communication, writing and teamwork skills.
Principal David Ljungberg talked about the program "Our Wee Deliver program is now in it's 16th year, it's open to any students who wish to apply, we have almost 250 applicants this year and the 3rd graders in particular can apply for the postmaster positions which are in charge of other students in the program. So out of the 250 applicants this year we were able to select 60 students based on teacher recommendations." Students that wanted to become Postmasters had to take a real practice civil service exam, those who scored a perfect score went on to the next round and had to write a letter about what makes them the best candidate for the position. Some of the main skills the program teaches includes letter writing, sending and receiving mail and experience working in the mail room.
Hopkinton and Woodville Postmaster Carl A. Zagame described the duties of a postmaster; "It's a little bit of everything, starting with when the mail comes in, in the morning it gets sorted properly. In Hopkinton's instance we have 11 routes in which the mail gets delivered on a daily basis and we manage the retail with the Hopkinton Post office, which is open 8:30-5:00 for peoples needs of sending packages out, letters, Passport acceptance."
Carl mentioned that he liked the Wee Deliver program because it keeps the letter writing process going "It keeps that old tradition of getting handwritten letters going, it keeps the post office which is well over 100 years old going." "There is nothing like getting that handwritten letter weather its neat or messy, it's personalized and it's just great for everybody to keep it going."
