August 5-9, 2024 Boston Convention and Exhibition Center
Heroes of the Year Honorable Mention Brittany Giles of West Palm Beach, FL Branch 1690
They rented out a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant and arcade and hosted a party for Camron and his family. Just as he had asked in his letter, he got to come together with his family and have some fun. “It was a great thing to see how many people truly cared and wanted to get involved and be a part of this,” Giles said. She encourages everyone to help in their community. “I’m sure every community or city has a mayor, and if you don’t have anything that your office is a part of, you can always go through that way and try and get in- volved with your city. But, especial- ly after COVID, things are rough for a lot of people right now,” she said. As for Camron, the carrier still is a part of his life, seeing him and his family regularly. “This is my extend- ed family at this point,” she said. “Community is everything. Family is everything. And it doesn’t have to be by blood.” “Camron is not going to live a long life,” Giles explained. “As he gets older, his body will start shutting down. He does not retain information. He does not re- member a lot of things. But the fact that I could give that kid a merry Christmas, even if it only lasted in his mind for a few moments, it was worth it.” Vigilant Award Tommy Howe of Fall River, MA Branch 51 Out on his route in Taunton, MA, on a hot July day, Fall River Branch 51 member Tommy Howe thought the man sitting by the road with a push lawnmower resting on his legs was feeling the effects of the heat. It looked serious enough that Howe stopped to help the man. “I tried to sit him up,” Howe said, but the man lost consciousness and collapsed. “That’s when I knew it was serious,” he said. “I had to get help quickly.” Howe, a carrier since 2007, spot- ted a pair of roofers working on a house nearby and yelled to them to
ter and wanted to know what toys he would like (he hadn’t included anything specific on his letter), the grandfather began crying. “You have no idea how much this means to me,” he told her. He also called Camron’s mother, Amy, who brought the boy to meet Giles. “He normally goes to Grandma and Grandpa’s house after school, and then he had his cousin help him write the letter,” Amy King told WPTV, the West Palm Beach NBC af- filiate. Camron was born without his left hand and has a muscle nerve disorder. “It’s called [Charcot-Ma- rie-Tooth disease], so that affects his nerves and muscles in his legs and arms, so as he gets older it kind of deteriorates. “They said he wouldn’t be able to walk, but he’s walking, running, playing soccer. I’m very proud of him. I always say, he’s my little mir- acle baby,” King added. When Giles—a cancer survivor who was told (incorrectly) that she would never have children—met Camron, she told him, “I work for Santa and I read your letter, but you didn’t say what type of toys you want. So, he sent me down here to get a list and bring it back to him.” The boy’s face lit up and he gave her a list of gifts for him and his family. Giles wrote down his ideas, but she left with a few more that hadn’t made it onto the list. She reached out to St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office Deputies Ethan Kirk and Rebecca Ireland. They all pooled their own money to buy the gifts on the list. And Deputy Kirk told WPTV that he “asked [Cam- ron] if there’s anything I can do for him, whether it’s go to his school, talk with his school resource deputy and just try to figure out a plan and try to get this stopped.” The police ultimately held an anti-bullying assembly at Camron’s school and spoke to every kid there. After local news covered the story, it began to take on a life of its own. The national organization Bikers Against Bullying contacted Giles and wanted to do something.
58 The Postal Record August 2024 Giles left her post office that eve- ning and went to the return address on the Santa letter—the residence of Camron’s grandparents, who looked at this uniformed letter carrier like she was strange. After explaining that she had received Camron’s let- Brittany Giles was leaving work one day in December last year when she saw her manager doing some- thing different. “My boss was mak- ing these super cute envelopes and stuffing them with a bunch of stuff,” the Port St. Lucie, FL, letter car- rier said. They were responses from kids’ letters to Santa. “There were really cute letters she typed up, ac- knowledging that these kids wrote to Santa, and she put in colored pencils, crayons, coloring books, candy canes, whatever.” Giles, a six-year letter carrier with West Palm Beach Branch 1690, im- mediately asked her manager if there were more. “I saw the bag and I started reading them, and a lot of them broke my heart. There were a lot of super-sad letters,” she said. But one stood out. Camron King, then 10 years old, asked Santa for some toys and to have his family “come together and to have fun and to not get bullied.” Giles knew she had to get in- volved. “When I read that, you know, I’m a mom. I have two little kids. I’m super big on family. I have always taught my children to be as nice as possible to everyone, especially the struggling children at school that are being picked on. Those are the ones that you want to go make friends with, right?” she said. “This was almost a year ago now, and I can still tell you exactly what the letter said because it stuck with me so much, because his letter was about how he wanted his family. He didn’t want to be bullied. I mean, it broke my heart.”
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker