A Duluth, Minnesota couple will be at Sunday's "white out" game for the Vikings when they take on the Detroit Lions, and that is thanks to social media and the big heart of one man.
Alissa and Jake Postal are huge Minnesota Viking fans. Jake is a postal worker. Yes, a postal worker with the last name of Postal.
Postal workers have been having a tough time keeping up as it is as been shared in the news both locally and nationally. And now it's the time of year when those working in the mail business gets extra busy thanks to all those gifts and cards heading through the postal service.
"The holidays are just the wildest of times, starting in October and going through January, he basically works 12 to 14 hour shifts, six days a week," says Alissa Postal. "I also work full-time and take care of the kids, mostly on my own so that is definitely a big struggle. I was asking him about going to this game, he was about saving money and things like that."
Alissa spoke to Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News and says she is very active with other Viking fans on X (formerly Twitter), and decided to see if there was a Purple Santa Claus out there who wanted to help out her overworked husband with some Viking tickets.
"I said my husband is such a hard working postal carrier, we want to go to the white out game, I basically just threw it out there and didn't think much of it," says Alissa. "A few of my followers retweeted it, I started getting some more interactions and all of that."
One Minnesota Viking fan came through in a big way.
"Suddenly Andy reached out," explains Alissa. "He was like, 'hey I've got some tickets, I want to give them to you, I appreciate all the hard work your husband does, message me I'll send them to you'. I was wondering is this legit? What? Other people said, 'yeah, Andy's legit.' He's like the kindest guy ever."
She says Andy Sowle told her he has season tickets and can't go to the game, and was happy to share them with the Postal family and appreciated all the hard work postal carriers do around the holiday season. Sowle is a firefighter from Iowa.
"I called Jake at work when this all came down and he was so excited," Alissa says. "I felt so happy that I could give this gift to him this Christmas. This was the best Christmas gift thanks to Andy, and I think this is the beginning of a great friendship."
To top it off, UNRL have now gotten involved and gifted the family apparel plus former Viking QB Kyle Sloter gave them his sideline passes.
It's a story that will be sure to make you smile heading into the holidays!
And Skol!