TUJUNGA : Postal Program Leaves Its Stamp on Elementary

Tujunga gained some new streets Thursday morning, but don’t go looking for Busy Bee Boulevard, Puppy Lane and Butterfly Spring Street on any road map.

Look for them--along with Alligator Alley, Puma Place and Llama Lane--at Pinewood Elementary School, as part of a U.S. Postal Service program.

“This is a national program the post office sponsors to help stamp out illiteracy,” said Stephan G. Riddle, Tujunga postmaster, who swore in fifth-grader Joselyn Gaitan as Pinewood’s first postmistress.

Under the Postal Service’s Wee Deliver program, first started in 1991, the post office helps classrooms set up their own post offices. Students vote on names to give for classrooms and floors, design stamps and write letters to each other.

The program at Pinewood, the first in Tujunga and a rare case in which an entire school joined the program, was kicked off with a launch of nearly 700 red, white and green balloons as part of the school’s Cinco de Mayo festivities.

Attached to each balloon was a 20-cent postcard, with the address of the school stamped on the front and the student’s name and classroom address--like Butterfly Spring Street--written on the back.

“If found, please place in a mailbox,” the cards read.

It took about a month to set up the Wee Deliver program at the school, after Principal Esther Macias suggested that Kathleen St. Johns, a teacher’s aide, take on the project.

“We’re just trying to get these kids to think about how important education is and make learning fun for them,” said St. Johns, adding that the new post office will probably become a boost for the school newspaper, which needs letters to the editor and other contributions.

“I like to deliver things,” said Gaitan, who had to pass tests on spelling, alphabetizing and other skills to get the job as postmistress. “I really enjoy doing a lot of things.”

Although the program was started four years ago, it had lost momentum without enough continuity as teachers and classes changed, said Terri Bouffiou, a spokeswoman for the Postal Service in Southern California.

Now the Postal Service is trying to revitalize the program and is offering more support, she said.

It will help students learn practical skills as they learn more about how their community works together, Bouffiou said.

Perhaps some of the students at Pinewood may be postal workers themselves someday, said Riddle, who donated an old metal letter box to the school.

“It’s a good job,” he said. “A very secure job.”