Girl, mail carrier find joy in daily dance parties

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    PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — It has been a hard year for everyone, including children. In a now viral video, a little girl and a mail carrier in southeast Portland are warming hearts across the world.

The two have kept up their special friendship, even during the pandemic.

Every morning, 3-year-old Ava looks out her front window and waits for the moment the mail carrier gets to her house.

Once he arrives, that’s when their daily dance party starts.

Ava has something to look forward to every day, helping make the best of her “stuck-at-home” situation. And it brings joy to Ian Simon, her neighborhood USPS mail carrier, too.

“She gets so excited it’s amazing puts a big smile on my face,” Simon told FOX 12.

Separated between a windowpane, the pair dance it out every morning.

There’s no set choreography, but it’s a tradition that started about two years ago and stuck.

“One of us started to do a little jig, and we just keep on doing it now,” Simon said.

During the pandemic, Ava’s dad David Whitlow said their special interaction now means even more.

“It starts the day on the right foot,” Whitlow said.

Speaking about Simon, Whitlow thanks him. “He’s really been a sweet person and he’s made a huge difference than, I don’t know, this otherwise dark time.”

Whitlow posted a video of Ava and Simon dancing, shot by his wife and a neighbor, to TikTok and it’s now been seen around the world.

Whitlow said the response has been overwhelming, but in a good way.

“I feel like people who’ve seen the video and watched 30 times and have cried every time, I feel like they feel like I feel like when I watch her dance and my wife watches,” he told FOX 12.

In the eyes of those living in Portland’s Montavilla neighborhood, Simon is delivering more than mail.

“A lot of people depend on us through the weather, the pandemic, through the fires all the smoke, [they] rely on us to get their Christmas presents online shopping. I love my job,” Simon said.

In a year of creating new traditions out of necessity, Simon and Ava’s dance parties will carry over into 2021.

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