A gesture of thanks took place at the Clanton Post Office on July 12 in the form of cookies.

Yolanda Boggs with the Chilton County United Way dropped off chocolate, strawberry and lemon cookies from Bertolone Italian Restaurant to the employees at the Clanton Post Office.

The cookies were in response to the help that the post office was able to provide as a result of its participation in the 25th Annual National Association of Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, which was held on May 13.

“We just wanted to let the Clanton Post Office know that we appreciated what they did,” Boggs said.

Half of the non-perishable food items donated during the drive were given to United Way.

“This is the first year that they have decided to split it and give us half,” Boggs said. “It was approximately 1,000 pounds of food.”

The United Way gave large portions of the received items to Raleigh’s Place and the county’s Emergency Management Center. The United Way supports 20 agencies in Chilton County.

According to Boggs, Raleigh’s Place collectively had over 200 foster children attend its summer camp at different intervals throughout that time.

“I called Sharon King over at Raleigh’s Place and she was here in 30 minutes,” Boggs said.

King gathered up about 260 pounds of food and used it to feed the foster children over the summer.

“That took a big strain off of them this summer,” Boggs said.

The Emergency Management Center came and picked up the remaining food items, which was roughly 650 pounds.

“We were able to distribute the food to those that we knew absolutely could use it and would need it,” Boggs said.

A positive aspect of the Emergency Management Center is that everything they have is used to help people within Chilton County.

“That’s important to me,” Boggs said. “United Way likes to be a part of the community and a helper within the community. This was a perfect opportunity.”

According to Boggs, she had told Sonia Bertolone-Carrillo, owner of Bertolone’s, about the post office’s generosity and the restaurant quickly offered to join in on the thank you by baking some cookies.

“I’d like to thank Bertolone, because she [Sonia] did not have to do that,” Boggs said. “We appreciate that.”

The cookies were a pleasant surprise to many of the post office employees that were on hand.

“I did not have a clue,” said Cynthia Martin with the Post Office. “All of us like to have something on that table back there [to eat].”

Adam Moyes is a carrier at the post office and was in charge of this year’s food drive.

“Our reward is making sure that people in our community are taken care of,” Martin said. “That’s the biggest thing for us. It is an awesome feeling.”