POSTAL SERVICE DELIVERS FOR GROUP.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

Odds and ends from around the Valley:

It's taken a while, but the U.S. Postal Service and the San Fernando Valley chapter of the Polio Survivors Foundation have finally buried the hatchet.

``We received word from the post office in Santa Clarita that we can continue our free mailings, and our first newsletter since May was sent out the other day,'' said Lee Seitz, president of the foundation's 800-member local chapter.

Terri Bouffiou, postal service representative, verified Thursday that the polio survivors had been given back their right to free mailings under the postal stamp ``Free Matter for the Blind or Handicapped.''

``She (Seitz) submitted documentation to us that they were eligible, and we accepted it,'' Bouffiou said.

It was more than three months ago that I wrote about a clerk in the rate and classification section of the Santa Clarita Postal Distribution Center sending the foundation's May newsletters back to Seitz saying that since polio survivors weren't blind they didn't qualify for the free mailing.

The fact that the foundation had applied for and been granted free mailings the last 10 years didn't carry any weight.

The Postal Service - facing projected losses of $3 billion this year (yeah, billion) - defended its action by saying it wasn't trying to make a few bucks off the polio foundation, but rather just trying to be fair to all handicapped people.

If it gave free mailings to polio survivors, who knows, pretty soon people with all sorts of handicaps would be knocking on the P.O.'s door looking for a free handout.

``I'm just glad the whole thing is over, but I still think our free mailings should have never been stopped in the first place,'' said Seitz, a quadriplegic polio survivor.

So do I and a lot of people who called and wrote to support your survivors group, Lee.

Ask and you shall receive. Last week, I ran a snap shot with the column of an old woman holding a young child in her lap. At her feet was a big, cardboard box tied up with twine.

Anita Beckendorf of Canoga Park had found the picture when it fell out of a used book she had bought at a thrift shop. The only clue to the picture's owner was a handwritten name and date on a gold label inside the front cover of the book.

It read Iris Penaranda, 12-04-95.

Well, Iris and about 50 other Filipino readers called to fill me in on the picture.

It's a receipt. Forex Cargo, which ships packages from the U.S. to the Philippines, takes a snapshot of the package when it arrives, then sends the picture to the U.S. shipper as proof the package got to the person in the Philippines.

Iris didn't know the old woman or child in the picture because she had given the book to a former Filipino co-worker, and never got it back.

And finally, hats off to Dick and Loretta Ehrig of Woodland Hills for putting on a dynamite Super Star Variety Show on Wednesday for the Senior Shalom Club of the West Valley Jewish Community Center.

More than 300 seniors jammed the auditorium to reminisce and enjoy an all-star cast that included singer Gogi Grant, famed tap dancer Fayard Nicholas and pianist Jack Nye.

The Ehrigs, talented performers in their own right, sing and dance their way around the Valley at the Sepulveda VA hospital, senior centers and anywhere people can use a little cheering up.

And they never take a penny for it.

That's class.