Kentucky Rural Letter Carriers' Association
PROJECT: BLUEGRASS MAILBOX EXPRESS
I reached out to the Board for guidance on exactly what we call this. As you see we went with the Bluegrass Mailbox Express. The first stop is dubbed Mountain Mailbox Project. The southeastern portion of Kentucky was hit hard from flooding. It's almost unimaginable seeing all the destruction and piles of personal items piled high along those streets and businesses entire contents moved from the buildings for pickup by the cleanup crews.
Our venture was first brought up at our Winter Booster Meeting on Sunday February 23, 2025. Maggie Abney, a member and District H officer, brought this idea to our attention during the District Officer Workshop. Within two hours, the attendees had donated well over $400 to start the fund. With logistics and contacts to make we began planning. By weeks end we had a plan and were moving forward. Kentucky Vice President Rick Lewis worked with Maggie and DR Sandra Holt to get some guidance on affected areas we could help with installing mailboxes. As the Board was already planning to attend District I's meeting in Louisa, KY, we decided to go over early on Saturday morning March 8th to Pikeville to install boxes, before attending that District's meeting later that evening. Thirteen days from the inception of this project, we began. We met and went to the first address as a group. We then decided to split into two groups for the rest of the day. We set 14 mailboxes in various locations on Saturday. A neighboring community to the south of Pikeville requested 4 boxes and posts that we dropped off at the Post Office there. Our remaining supplies of mailboxes and posts, along with some cleaning supplies was dropped off at the Pikeville Emergency Management Collection. Doug Miller, retiree from Pikeville along with member Teresa Taylor each led our two groups as they knew the area. It was very humbling by those of us there to see the appreciation of what one mailbox being set for them to receive their mail meant to them.
The State of Kentucky has held four of its eight District Meetings so far this year. Just the Districts alone have donated $1,500 toward this project. Personal donations have exceeded $1,300 also. We have 4 Districts left to go, so I'm sure the total will grow. We have decided to make this project continue as we move forward, knowing others will be in need. Whether its our customers who need help or those brothers and sisters of this Union, we want to be able to reach and help those affected when any type of disaster comes knocking.
Nathan Roberts
President Kentucky Rural Letter Carriers' Association