Atlanta District’s first Village Post Office (VPO) in Suchess, GA, opened for business this holiday season.

VPOs were introduced in 2011 to expand customer access to postal products and services in rural communities across the nation. They offer the products and services that customers use most often — including PO Boxes, Forever stamps and prepaid Priority Mail Flat Rate envelopes. The first VPO opened in Malone, WA.

During a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the VPO in the Wolf Pen Gap Country Store, Union County Commissioner Lamar Paris expressed his appreciation to the Postal Service for offering additional postal services to the area. “We thought we were going to lose our Post Office, but now we have two,” said Paris.

Store owner Doug Gooch displayed photographs of the first Suchess Post Office and shared his own family’s postal history. “My father, who rode a mule as a carrier, was the Postmaster of Sarah, GA,” said Gooch. “My cousin was the Postmaster in Suchess many years ago, so I hope I can carry on the family tradition of providing postal services to the residents of this community.”

As of Dec. 24, there were 106 fully-functional VPOs nationwide and 57 VPOs with awarded contracts.