Meet your news carrier

Each Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m., Cainhoy peninsula resident Debbie Brooks pulls into the parking lot behind 225 Seven Farms Drive on Daniel Island. She meets Mendy Wilson, the Post & Courier’s commercial print division delivery person, who arrives at about the same time in her white van. 

 

The two exchange stories as they load Brooks’ SUV with 2,300 copies (23 stacks) of the current edition of The Daniel Island News. From there, Brooks, sometimes with the help of her college-aged daughter Katie, delivers the paper to businesses and drop locations throughout the greater Daniel Island area.

 

Brooks is just one of the paper’s five regular carriers who deliver the paper each week to homes and businesses in the area. In honor of National Newspaper Carrier Day, which was Sept. 5, please take a moment to meet your carrier.

 

For her day job, Brooks manages J. Jill in the Mount Pleasant Towne Center. Brooks delivers the paper to supplement her income. What she didn’t expect, “I’ve built some pretty great relationships along the way with different people while delivering in and out of the various businesses.”

 

Jackson Detar is the youngest of the paper’s carriers at age 22, but he has the most experience. The son of the paper’s owner – this writer – he’s been delivering the papers for most of his life. He helped fold and deliver the first edition in 2003 when he was five years old and he and his older siblings have held routes off and on ever since. 

 

Detar folds, bags and delivers 1,700 papers each week to all homes in Daniel Island Park and in the south-side of Daniel Island on the Wando River side of Daniel Island Drive, as well as to several developments off of Clements Ferry Road. 

 

Detar spent the summer apprenticing at WilliamsSmith Fireplaces and set up his own fireplace installation and repair business to work with them.

 

Married couple John and Carrie Blackburn deliver to the remaining home sections of Daniel Island – the south-side on the Cooper River side of Daniel Island Drive and to the developments on St. Thomas Island.

 

Carrie reports that as of this week, “I happily retired after a 40-year career in nursing. John is retired Navy and is working at Clements Ferry ACE.”

 

The couple delivers 1,200 papers each week from their golf cart and especially enjoy when kids are waiting for the paper and try to catch their toss. “We enjoy serving the community and meeting our neighbors,” Carrie said. “The extra income will come in handy with retirement!”

 

Jim Flynn is the paper’s newest carrier, having bagged and thrown his first paper in the summer of 2019. Flynn delivers 1,000 papers each week on the Cainhoy peninsula to several developments, including Nellifield, The Peninsula and River’s Reach.

 

Flynn works at the Daniel Island Club and is the director of development for a nonprofit. He delivers the paper to help pay his son’s college rent.

 

One of the most interesting things he’s seen on his route: “One evening while delivering around dusk I saw two young deer walk into someone’s open garage. I kept moving so I don’t know if they found what they were looking for!”

 

If he could have a superpower, Flynn said, “I would like to be able to fold my arms across my chest, blink my eyes and fold and bag 1,000 newspapers in an instant.”

 

Having delivered every route many times over the past 17 years, this writer wants the same superpower!