A Friendly Face at Spring Valley’s Post Office

By Zech Sindt

When you enter Spring Valley’s post office, you will be greeted by one of the friendly postal workers. These postal workers dedicate their lives to making sure when you walk up to their counter with a box or an envelope, it will get to wherever in the world you want it to go. One of those friendly faces is Kersten Drees.

Drees is a busy woman. As a window clerk, she not only waits on customers and answers the phone, but she often arrives at work while many of us are still in bed. She helps sort the mail to get it dispersed to the drivers in the Spring Valley area so they can get on the road. She says everyone at the post office works together to keep everything going. 

The favorite part of Drees’ job is interacting with the customers. “They may come in to buy a 72 cent stamp, but they often stay and talk for five minutes. I love that part of the job. It’s awesome!” She continued, “I love it when my regulars come in with stories from the night before. I get all the morning news that way.” 

Drees started working for the post office about three years ago. “I started out in Ostrander. It was only four miles from home. I’ve got three children, and they’re all raised, so I didn’t want to stay at home. What am I going to do? Clean the house all day? There’s only so much I can clean,” she joked. She was in Ostrander for about two years before moving to Spring Valley. “It’ll be a year in November,” she said. 

Drees loves working in Spring Valley, and especially loves talking to people from the area. “We’ve lived in the area pretty much our whole lives, and with this job you see people who you’ve heard of, but never met. You get to see your old teachers. You get to see people you normally don’t see if you’re just running to the grocery store. Here you get to really find out what’s going on in life, what’s new.” She says her children joke with her about her love of interacting with people. “Mom, you get on an elevator with someone, and by the time you get to the third floor, you know who they are, where they’re from, and what they’re doing,” she said with a chuckle.

In her job as a postal worker, Drees says there are times when it can be tough. “I hate to say this, but the worst time is the holiday season. We try to be cheerful, but it’s taxing. There are times where we work seven days a week. Instead of one mail truck and one Amazon truck, we get two mail trucks and two Amazon trucks, and we have to have all that sorted for the carriers by about 7:30 in the morning, so we often start before 5.” She continued, “That’s what we call peak season. It runs from a little before Thanksgiving until mid-January.” But it’s all worth it in the end. “I love helping people,” she said. 

Drees says another thing she loves about her job is waiting for the carriers to come back for the day. “They always have a story. I love to hear their stories,” she said. 

Originally from Wykoff, Drees has always lived in the area. Her husband is from Ostrander. She says she likes small-town living. “I’ve always stayed living in this area. I have children that live in the big cities, and whenever I go to visit them, I tell them that they couldn’t pay me to live there,” she said. “It’s nice to live in a small community. It’s good growing up here. When I was growing up, everyone was on the phone with each other.  ‘Oh, your daughter’s over here, she’s in the back yard with my little one.’ It’s just more personable here.” She feels that people really watch out for each other in this area. “They tend to be nosier,” she laughed, “but you really do get to build relationships with people here.” She continued, “People here are so welcoming!”

Drees has also been involved in the community over the years. “I worked at the church for a few years as a faith formation director from 2008 through 2016. I’ve always tried to be busy. I’ve always found that working is so rewarding,” Drees reflected. 

Drees has been married since 1993. She has three children. Her oldest child, a son, works in sales and financing in Hibbing. He has blessed her with five grandchildren. The next one, her oldest daughter, is getting married soon. She lives in the Minneapolis area and works in a crime lab. Drees’ youngest child is nineteen and lives in Minneapolis as well. Drees says the most important job in her life is being a mom. “My kids still call me every day. I still raise them even though they’re all out of the home now. My most important job is being a mom, being there for them.”