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An exhibit honoring employees of the United States Postal Service for countless acts of heroism from Colonial times to the present opened Wednesday, October 8 at the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum. The exhibit, "In The Line of Duty: Dangers, Disasters and Good Deeds," will continue through October 4, 2004.
It takes courage to face dangers and disasters in the line of duty, and the men and women of the U.S. Postal Service have done just that for more than 200 years. Since the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin as Postmaster General, America's mail has been transported by horse, coach, train, plane, ship, car, bus, truck, pack mule, dogsled and on foot. The dangers of moving the mail have been just as diverse. During the early days of mail delivery, postal workers were sometime injured or killed as a result of stagecoach hold-ups, train robberies, airplane crashes, and other disasters. More recent threats have included bombs and bioterrorism. Regardless of the circumstances, America's postal workers have continued to face dangers and disasters with intelligence, grace and good deeds.
On display at the "In the Line of Duty: Dangers, Disasters and Good Deeds," exhibit is a detonator used in a 1923 train robbery, letters that survived a "Unabomber" package, a mail-sorting desk used by one of the World Trade Center's city letter carriers during the 9/11 attacks, a USPS-ADVO-National Center for Missing and Exploited Children partnership "Recovery Bear," and more!
The exhibit also celebrates the U.S. Postal Service's partnership and involvement with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and ADVO, Inc., in the America's Missing Children's program. ADVO distributes pictures of missing children to 85 million homes per week on its Have You Seen Me?® direct mail cards. It was announced during the exhibit ceremony that another child has been safely recovered, crediting the program with safe recovery of 130 missing children since 1985 from across the country and overseas.
Participating in the exhibit opening and ribbon cutting event were John M. Nolan, deputy postmaster general, U.S. Postal Service; Nick Lampson, U.S. Representative (D-TX); Sheila Burke, under secretary, Smithsonian Institution; Allen Kane, director, National Postal Museum; Gary Mulloy, chairman and chief executive officer; ADVO, Inc.; Ernie Allen, president and chief executive officer, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; members of U.S. Postal Service Management Associations and Unions, and recovered missing children and their families.
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