Community Corner

Shipper Measures Community's Kindness in the Number of Packages Sent

The UPS store on Argonne Drive in downtown Kirkwood ships out care packages by the dozen from family members looking out for their far flung kin.

How do you measure the kindness of a community? Try tracking the number of care packages it ships out around the holidays. 

By that measure, "there are a lot of thoughtful people here in Kirkwood," according to Suzanne Manning. She runs the UPS store in downtown Kirkwood and said they always receive a large uptick in business around the holidays as family members send out gifts to kin throughout the country. 

Right now, Manning is preparing to play Easter Bunny with an influx of baskets full of candy and chocolate. She estimated that they could ship as many as 50 Easter-related packages.

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College students, stranded in dorm rooms and barely furnished apartments, are also a popular target for generosity. On a Thursday morning last week, Manning and a co-worker were busy putting together a bulk shipment of ramen noodles, the staple food of undergraduates everywhere. 


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