Notes From the Desk

Author: Megan O’Keefe, Managing Editor

I did something really dumb this weekend. I'll spare you all of the details, but at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday morning I found myself in McCullough glancing back and forth between a neon-green package slip and the closed mailroom window. Somewhere inside that dark mailroom was my Internet-ordered Winter Carnival dress and all I could do was stare wide-eyed and groan, "Ugh, I thought the mailroom was open until 12 p.m. on Saturday."

Actually, that would have been all I could do if this weren't Middlebury College. Instead, I went upstairs to the Center for Campus Activities and Leadership (CCAL) office where I found Assistant Director of Student Organizations and Administration Charlotte Chase. Charlotte didn't have a key to the mailroom, but by the time she told me that she would have driven to her house if she had a key there just to help me get my dress, I realized I wasn't alone.

Ten minutes later, Public Safety Dispatcher Debra Ekdahl had already promised to send an officer to McCullough to liberate my dress. Enter my angel in uniform - Public Safety Officer Kathleen "K.K." Keeler. Not only did she retrieve my forlorn package from the once-locked mailroom, but she was so nice and understanding in the process that I actually thought I was going to cry.

Sure, it would have been a lot easier to pay attention to the actual hours of the mailroom. But if I hadn't been so stupid, I never would have been reminded of how lucky Middlebury students are to attend a school where staff members go out of their way to help us out - and do so with a smile.

So I want to say "Thank You." Not just to the women who helped me retrieve my dress, but to everyone staff member at Middlebury College who goes out of his or her way to help make our lives easier, even when we don't deserve it.

When people ask me what is special about Middlebury College, I often tell then that I feel "taken care of" here. Whether it is a custodial team that cleans up messes that they have no business bothering with, Public Safety officers who come to the rescue of access card-less students at all hours of the night or women who know how important a new dress is on the day of Winter Carnival Ball, the staff of Middlebury College have earned my respect and gratitude a hundred times over.