By Ilze Zvirgzdins

Photos by Gerald Merna

IT NEVER RAINS OR SNOWS. There are no cars, buses or rollerbladers to worry about. There are no snarling dogs. It's the ideal mail route. The only downside is those pesky teachers who make you walk not run. Of course, they have to catch you first.

"Remember you're at work and you have to be ... what?" asks Linda McCaffrey, better known as "Mrs. McCaffrey" to the small people who inhabit the classrooms of Kettering Elementary School in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. When there is no rapid response from the half dozen students gathered around her, she answers the question herself. "Quiet."

McCaffrey, personable, fashionable and looking much younger than someone who has spent more than three decades in the teaching trenches, smiles slyly at her charges with that look that makes children behave. Only the best teachers can pull it off.

"Uh-huh," nods Nicole Carroll, an energetic and confident third grader, her "Pocahontas" T-shirt, leggings and hairband in matching shades of purple. She's anxious to get going. When McCaffrey finally nods her assent, Nicole high-fives Brandon Montgomery, a lanky and more subdued fourth grader, before they both grab their blue satchels filled with letters and head down the hallway. They turn a corner, and quickly ascertaining that no teachers are in sight, Brandon breaks into a trot and Nicole starts skipping, her long ponytail bouncing with her. They're off to deliver the mail, "Wee Deliver" style.

Kettering is one of nearly 25,000 schools across the country - from Freeport, NY, to Grove City, PA, to Long Beach, CA - that participate in the Postal Service's program called Wee Deliver, launched in 1990. It's modeled after the in-school postal service created by teachers and administrators at North Lakeland Elementary School in Florida with the help of Lakeland postal officials. (See story on page 18.)

Pupils write letters to friends, teachers and staff. They drop them off at special mailboxes at school. The letters are collected, sorted and delivered to classrooms by student postal workers. Schools get assistance from the Postal Service and their local postmaster in setting up their programs. The children get practice at reading, writing and responsibility. The Postal Service improves its image.

"It's a great motivator for kids. It gives them a bird's-eye view of how the mail system works," says Andrew L. Gunn Wilinski, former national program coordinator who helped launch the program by attending education conventions across the country and getting feedback from thousands of educators. "Besides reading and writing, it teaches math, geography and science. The program helps to build self-esteem and promotes team spirit. Kids love it."

It used to be that passing a missive to your best buddy in school was an offense punishable by detention or something worse, like writing, "I will not pass notes in class," a hundred times on the chalkboard. No longer. Go ahead and pass that note. The teachers say it's okay as part of Wee Deliver.

"I give them free time to write, and I think everybody does," says McCaffrey, a third-grade teacher who's in charge of the program at Kettering, a magnet school emphasizing communication and academic studies.

Principal Lucy Marr says the program has "done wonders" for the youngsters because they need to be able to write what they think. "The children here learn how to write letters to persuade, to request something, to invite, to thank. So they're learning how to do the kind of writing that's necessary in daily life. It's really preparing them for a lot of life skills."

The program gives children an early introduction to working at a job. The kids have to fill out job applications. The positions are just like those at the Postal Service. "Everybody wants to be a letter carrier," bemoans McCaffrey, a teaching veteran of three decades who nonetheless still enjoys the job. There's a new staff selected every month from different grades. Even the very youngest participate at Kettering.

Six-year-old Amber Crutchfield, a tiny first grader with her hair in braids, has letters to deliver like Nicole and Brandon, but she goes her separate way. Quietly, the wee deliverer slowly but deliberately walks her appointed rounds in the hallways named for educational themes - Academic Avenue, Primary Place, Technology Terrace, Kindergarten Corral - never faltering in deciphering the addresses scribbled by children just learning to write, just like her.

"I write to my friends," she says shyly. "I like to read."

Job well done.

Still delivering after all these years "It was a long time ago." For Tempia Kirkland and Tamela Chisholm, six years is about half a lifetime. It's been that long since the two girls, now in high school, were among the earliest participants in North Lakeland Elementary School's in-house postal service on which the nationwide Wee Deliver program is based. "I remember being in the postal room," says Tempia, quiet and pretty, her hair braided high on her head. "I sorted the letters, I stamped them, sometimes I delivered them." She says the program helped her in writing letters. "I write a lot of letters. It kind of got you started when I was young." "I was postmaster," recalls Tamela proudly. A basketball and track athlete and budding musician (she'll play the xylophone in the high school band next year), she says she "thought it was good for work skills." At this point in their young lives, neither girl foresees a future career with the Postal Service. Both say they hope to be college bound. Tempia wants to study law, and Tamela hopes to become a veterinarian. North Lakeland Elementary is still into mail in a big way. The 12-member postal staff is composed of third graders who hold their jobs the entire school year. They sort through on average 50 letters three times a week. Ask them if they want to work for the Postal Service in the future, and they all say yes. "We've been doing it so long at North Lakeland, it's almost second nature," says Laura Collins, writing resource teacher. "We've never had anybody quit in the five years I've been in charge of the program." The school is so postal friendly that around Christmas time, the entire student body - about 600 - hiked about a mile or so to the Lakeland Post Office on a field trip. Postal workers and Santa Claus at the same time! Customer Relations Manager Lesley Corban, a role model for extroverts everywhere, was instrumental in helping the school set up its postal service. She continues to be Southeast Area coordinator for Wee Deliver. She also has stayed personally involved in the school's efforts to better the lives of its students who come from low-income families. "It's very easy to get addicted to the feeling that maybe we're making a little bit of difference," she says. Postmaster Al Manganello, who unleashed Corban on the North Lakeland program, says there's a payoff to teaching children about the Postal Service and how to address mail. "It helps us in the long run." Manganello says it's also extremely positive for the Postal Service's image. He says it shows people that the post office not only delivers a certain type of service but is also willing to go out and help the community. "I'm personally real proud of what happened," he says. - Ilze Zvirgzdins