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Postal carriers celebrate ‘Hoodie Hoo Day,’ wish winter away

T-R PHOTO BY MIKE DONAHEY - Displaying signs reading "Hoodie-Hoo, go away winter" to "Just say no to snow," to "Spring please come," 11 Marshalltown postal carriers celebrated in front of their vehicles Wednesday as part of national Hoodie Hoo Day.

Will a bit of fun and whimsy motivate the cold, ice and snow to go away? Will holding a sign “Spring please come” make it arrive earlier than March 21?

Ask any of the 11 mail carriers working out of the Marshalltown post office who gathered in front of their snow-covered vehicles Wednesday morning and yelled “say no to snow” as part of nation Hoodie-Hoo Day.

It is legitimate, at least in the eyes of postal carrier Kaylene Jennings and her comrades.

Hoodie-Hoo is a day celebrated nationally every Feb. 20. Its mission: Help people overcome winter-time “blues” while urging spring to arrive ASAP.

Jennings has solid reason to believe, having delivered mail for six years in Homer, Alaska. Mail carriers and residents there celebrated Hoodie-Hoo Day, she said. Why? Because there are periods when it was dark 24/7.

On Wednesday, Jennings and fellow carriers were thrilled to hold hand-made signs to make winter depart. They are the men and women who deliver mail in town and on rural routes in all kinds of extreme weather.

And they are more anxious than most to see this winter — marked by a polar vortex earlier this year and near-record snowfalls in some parts of Iowa — end.

Additionally, their small United States Postal Service vehicles are prone to getting stuck in snow-covered street.

“We are out working,” Jennings said. “Fed Ex and my vehicle were stuck on Thunderbird at the same time.”

One of Jenning’s colleagues said she has been stuck this winter “too many times to count.”

Small and lightweight, the vehicles don’t have front or four-wheel drive.

The carriers said they appreciate customers who shovel or make snow paths, and find footing treacherous and delivery times slowed significantly when they do not.

“Thank you for shoveling and the snow paths,” a grateful carrier wrote.

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Contact Mike Donahey at 641-753-6611 or mdonahey@timesrepublican.com

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