Crescent City Rural Letter Carrier April Marvin recently sent a letter to a Postal Service employee publication about her older brother, Sgt. Nathan Bourdlaies, who is currently on his third deployment to Afghanistan. While his wife was in the hospital about to give birth to their fourth child, Marvin assisted by holding up an iPad, during her sister-in-laws contractions so they could continue to communicate. That’s when Marvin noticed a set of golf clubs behind her brother in his living quarters.
Not knowing that her brother had taken up golf in his spare time, she asked him about it. He said that he and his friends had taken up the sport while on base. When he said he was going to write to the local golf course in Crescent City to see if he could purchase some used golf balls, it gave Marvin an idea.
Marvin sent an email to the manager of the local radio station, who also happens to be her landlord, and asked if she could help get the word out. “I thought she was just going to post it on the station’s Facebook page, but then people starting coming up to me saying they heard about it on the radio. I was really surprised, but very pleased,” Marvin said. “Because that’s when the donations really started pouring in.
So far Marvin has collected over 30 gallons of golf balls. Every two weeks she ships them to her brother using Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes for APO/FPO. “Using the Priority boxes has been a blessing. If I were to send them any other way, the expense would be astronomical. And even though he’s in Afghanistan, he normally gets the boxes within five days. It’s really amazing,” Marvin said.
“I’m really happy that the community I live in supports our troops and that we all believe in community service, whether it benefits those locally or far away,” she said.
“April is a great employee and a great sister to her brother. Not only is she helping him by sending Priority Mail Boxes, which directly helps our bottom line, but she also helps his wife with their four children. Every one in the military should have someone like April in their lives,” said acting supervisor Hollie Maready.
