Big-hearted postie David’s antics in costume keep village smiling
Come rain or shine, postmen and women are up at the crack of dawn to deliver our mail – and they have been more important than ever during the Covid-19 pandemic.
One village community decided to band together and thank their local postman, David Hart, for all his hard work during the pandemic and for always putting a smile on their faces.
From dressing up as a nun, collecting eggs for someone shielding, and just generally being positive, David has been able to lift the spirits of the people of Ightfield, a village near Whitchurch, while raising money for local causes.
One resident, Sarah Garbett, came up with the idea of a personalised photo book to say thank you to David.
“Our postman is called David Hart,” Sarah said.
“His name is very similar to him – he has a big heart.
"He is consistently a credit to his work and Royal Mail, but also is just so happy, always wears a beaming smile through rain or shine and is caring to all of us in the village, consistently going above and beyond.
“He is sometimes the only person someone sees in this pandemic too and has dressed up to make us laugh, raised money for local charities and hospitals and always has a few words to keep everyone going.”
Sarah presented David with the 60-page book as a token of appreciation from the village – it contained photos people had taken of Dave while dressed up, messages of thanks and even drawings from children.
“He had been entertaining us all the time with his dressing up,” Sarah explained.
“I asked his permission to put a picture of him on my Facebook page for my family and neighbours to see.
“I got a lot of really nice comments off them and I thought, what could we do to thank him for being a lovely person and going the extra mile all the time.
"I do a lot of photograph books so I thought that would be a good way to show our thanks.”
She went round the village with a letter asking people to contribute to the book if they wanted to and then put it together and surprised him with it one morning.
“He was quite touched, he didn’t realise just how many people had noticed him,” she said.
“Dave does his job with a skip and a jump but he also enjoys seeing and meeting people. It is quite a pressurised job nowadays but he always makes time and is so pleasant.
“It is just lovely to have someone smiling walking up your drive – he has become a real part of the community.”
David, 33, from Market Drayton, said he was overwhelmed by the kindness.
“It was really heart-warming to know I was appreciated in the community as much as I appreciate them,” he said.
“It was nice to have it reciprocated. What I thought was me just doing my job obviously meant a lot to people. We have all had it quite tough over the past year so it’s been nice to put a smile on people’s faces.”
David and his colleagues started doing ‘funky shirt Thursdays’ as a way to raise money for local charities which soon turned into fancy dress Thursdays.
As an office they raised £2,000 for Whitchurch food bank and £2,000 for the friends of Whitchurch hospital.
