After 25 years serving our neighborhood, mail carrier moving on

Mail carrier Mike Rexroad on his last day delivering mail to the Douglas Park community.

Mike Rexroad has been delivering birthday cards and bills, parcels and paycheks for decades. In fact, he has likely delivered something important to you.

Nearly 25 of his years of service in the U.S. Postal Service have been in our own neighborhood. Most of our neighbors have likely not known another postal carrier.

As the postal worker motto states, "neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night" keep postal workers from delivering their mail. And Rexroad lived up to that standard, delivering mail through recent snow, slush and ice that paralyzed many parts of our city.

"I love my job. I get up in the morning and I'm excited to go see my people," he said during an impromptu gathering Friday afternoon at a neighborhood home celebrating his service to our community.

Neighbors gather to say farewell to Rexroad.

During the gathering Rexroad was surprised with cheesecake and cookies as he made his daily rounds.

About a dozen people greeted and thanked the mail carrier with gifts and cards at the gathering.

Rexroad is relocating to a service area south of NE 125th Street. Our neighborhood is changing to what the Post Office calls an auxiliary route —one that may not have the same mailman or same delivery schedule each day.

Rexroad was able to stay at the gathering briefly, visiting with neighbors that he has delivered thousands of letters and packages to over the years.

But Rexroad had to leave that gathering. "Gotta finish my route," he said.