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Helm takes helm as Brazoria postmaster
Published October 2, 2009
BRAZORIA — When Ola Helm started walking a postal route 23 years ago, she was told it would take 15 years before she could move from days in the hot sun to a job in the air conditioned Post Office building.
She now not only gets to spend her days inside, she gets to run the place.
Helm was sworn in as the 24th postmaster at the Brazoria branch since it opened in 1846, Brazoria Mayor Ken Corley said during his reading of a proclamation declaring Thursday as Ola Helm Day.
Prior to becoming postmaster in Brazoria, where she is responsible for customer and rural delivery services, Helm was postmaster in Van Vleck after having started her career as a carrier in Lake Jackson, she said.
Helm used to walk door to door delivering bills, postcards, letters and important information to customers, her legs often aching at the end of the day, she said.
But over time, she became determined to learn more and become invaluable to the post office.
“I came in and learned everything I could and I worked with everybody and just built that rapport of doing whatever I could for the service to make it a better place to work,” Helm said.
Though she planned on a career with the postal service, Helm didn’t aim to be a postmaster, she said.
“When I was a carrier, my son, when he was about 4 years old, said, ‘Mom, one day you will be the postmaster of Lake Jackson,’” Helm said. “I said, ‘Baby, that’s a huge job — no way.’”
But the idea grew on Helm, and her ambition to become a postmaster fed her drive in every route she worked and every piece of mail she delivered.
“With my work ethic and my goals and aspirations, every time there was an opening or someone said they couldn’t do something because no one was trained, I would take the manuals home, I would read them and I would do whatever it took to do the job done,” Helm said.
Her hard work made her into a postmaster who will do a wonderful job in Brazoria, Manager of Operations Myron Kelly said.
“She’s somebody who gets things done, and she’s proud of her efforts and is a consummate professional in everything she does,” Kelly said. “This is to Brazoria’s benefit and you have a postmaster who’s beyond reproach. She has integrity, she’s honest and she puts her customers first.”
Helm said she’ll work every day to make sure customers needs are addressed.
“I’ve worked in every aspect of the postal service and I know what it is to be a customer who can’t find a package, or they’re waiting on a wedding dress and it has to get there tomorrow and it hasn’t left,” Helm said. “If I have to drive to Houston and get that package and make sure they have it for their wedding, I’ll do that.”
Erin McKeon covers Brazoria for The Facts. Contact her at 979-237-0152.
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