{"id":18548,"date":"2017-03-08T10:10:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T15:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=18548"},"modified":"2017-03-08T10:10:45","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T15:10:45","slug":"elgin-il-letter-carrier-beats-the-odds-to-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2017\/03\/08\/elgin-il-letter-carrier-beats-the-odds-to-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"Elgin, IL letter carrier beats the odds to walk"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-thumbnail link-fullfeature\">\n<p><a title=\"Elgin, IL, Letter Carrier Shawn Skau, who was born with clubbed feet, credits his postal job with helping him stay limber.\" href=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IllinoisCarrier_large-story.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[23838]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-twentyfourteen-full-width size-twentyfourteen-full-width wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IllinoisCarrier_large-story.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IllinoisCarrier_large-story.jpg 900w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IllinoisCarrier_large-story-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IllinoisCarrier_large-story-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IllinoisCarrier_large-story-120x80.jpg 120w\" alt=\"USPS employee\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"link-caption\">Elgin, IL, Letter Carrier Shawn Skau, who was born with clubbed feet, credits his postal job with helping him stay limber.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<p>USPS News Link &#8211; 3\/8\/17 &#8211; Walking for hours each day isn\u2019t always easy, especially when doctors said you\u2019d probably never walk at all.<\/p>\n<p>Just ask Elgin, IL, Letter Carrier Shawn Skau, who was born with clubbed feet and spent the next 12 years undergoing surgeries at Shriners Hospital for Children in Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>Skau never doubted his abilities and became a letter carrier in 1995 despite chronic pain in his feet.<\/p>\n<p>He needed custom footwear early in his career, but now he wears regular boots with custom insoles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not as fast a walker as the average person and I can\u2019t run, but I\u2019m consistent with my speed,\u201d Skau said.<\/p>\n<p>For his 50th birthday recently, Skau\u2019s wife, Shelly, contacted Shriners to arrange a tour of the facility that changed his life. The<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/suburbs\/elgin-courier-news\/community\/chi-ugc-article-northern-illinois-mailman-former-patient-on-2017-02-14-story.html\">Chicago Tribune covered<\/a><\/em><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>the visit.<\/p>\n<p>The letter carrier was then asked to speak before the hospital\u2019s board of governors to share his experience growing up as a Shriners patient.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI owe them the life I have,\u201d Skau said.<\/p>\n<p>He also credits the physical demands of his job with the Postal Service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe walking I do is keeping my feet strong and limber.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elgin, IL, Letter Carrier Shawn Skau, who was born with clubbed feet, credits his postal job with helping him stay limber. USPS News Link &#8211; 3\/8\/17 &#8211; Walking for hours each day isn\u2019t always easy, especially when doctors said you\u2019d probably never walk at all. Just ask Elgin, IL, Letter Carrier Shawn Skau, who was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18548"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18551,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18548\/revisions\/18551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}