Youth

Washington, Oregon, California and throughout the US

Belgium; British Columbia, Canada; China; Ukraine

Dear Educator or Youth Stamp Club/Scout Leader:

Thank you for expressing an interest in using stamps as a part of your teaching curriculum and/or running a youth stamp program. Starting a stamp interest group can be a rewarding experience. Youth Stamp Collectors can help you with the transition and help keep you going year after year. When you register with Youth Stamp Collectors as an Educator or Youth Group/Scout Leader, you will receive many benefits, more than just the Educators Packet. The Educators Packet is meant to get you started; it contains ideas on how to start a youth stamp club, materials to use stamps in a class curriculum, philatelic (stamp collecting) information, games and projects for youth to do, as well as sample copies of literature and booklets available. Due to the Wide variety of educators we work with, it is impossible to put together a curriculum to fit all educators’ needs. Therefore, Youth Stamp Collectors is your clearinghouse for obtaining philatelic materials. This letter will inform you of the process and benefits of being a member of Youth Stamp Collectors.

After reading this informational letter, if you decide the Educators Packet and Youth Stamp Collectors will be helpful in your teaching endeavors and class/stamp club projects, fill out the registration form enclosed and mail it with your first year’s dues to the address provided. You will shortly receive your Educators Packet and other items needed to get started. Be sure to keep our e-mail, mailing address and phone number handy so you can contact us when you need supplies.

Your first question may be “Why stamp collecting?” First, the purpose of Youth Stamp Collectors is to provide youth of today and tomorrow a different hobby -- something that is easy to do, safe, inexpensive and educational! I have enjoyed stamp collecting for over 30 years. As a child, it was fun. As an adult, it is still fun and relaxing. I enjoy traveling the world when I work on my stamps. Our company goal is for Educators to use stamps in their teaching curriculums and help scouts obtain their Stamp Collecting Merit Badges. Stamp collecting is a wonderful, educational hobby that has been active for over 100 years; there are no barriers to collecting – people of any race, gender and nationality collect. From paupers to kings, all types of people have been and are collectors. Many U.S. presidents, and kings and queens around the world have been and are stamp collectors. Stamp collecting is a hobby that can help improve one’s health as well as be relaxing, taking the day’s stress away. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a child, he became ill and bedridden. To pass the time during his recuperation, a relative introduced him to stamp collecting. He collected his entire life up to his death. As President of the United States, world leaders knew of his philatelic interests and brought gifts of stamps from their own countries to give him when visiting the US (or when he visited their country). Knowledge gained from Roosevelt’s stamp collecting helped him make important military decisions during World War II which enabled the US and its allies to win the war.

Stamp collecting is also an excellent tool for teaching history and geography, reading and writing research papers. Stamp collecting is popular even in the most desolate countries. The Ukraine is going through some extreme economic hardships. Youth and adults write to a short wave radio station in Canada asking for donations of stamps so they would have something to do besides reflect on their difficulties all day long. Schools in Sri Lanka have asked for stamps as well. Many private, public and home school co-ops throughout Washington, Oregon, California and scattered areas of the United States are using stamps in their teaching curriculums as they realize the value of postage stamps in teaching history and geography. Many scout and pathfinder leaders throughout the US assist their members in obtaining the Stamp Collecting Merit Badge and continue beyond with an emphasis on education. We conduct stamp collecting workshops along the West Coast for educators, families and scouts for their Stamp Collecting Merit Badges. We have supplied stamps and materials for each of these programs.

Your next question may be “Who is Youth Stamp Collectors?” We are a non-profit organization which has become a clearinghouse for the above projects as there are not enough hours in a day or days in a year for us to personally visit every school or community youth stamp club in every town to work with Educators and Leaders on a one-on-one level. Local caring citizens are needed to volunteer their time in continuing stamp clubs, and Educators must be excited (or at least willing) to use stamps in their teaching curriculums; we can help you get started and keep you stocked in supplies.

So, let’s get started on what you can expect as an Educator or Youth Stamp Club Leader member of Youth Stamp Collectors. The items in the Educators Packet are intended to be fun and interesting. There is a LOT of philatelic information as well as games and projects to help you learn (if you yourself are a beginner) and teach stamp collecting to youth, whether in a classroom setting, a regular monthly stamp club meeting outside of school, a Scout group, a Boys and Girls Club, or a youth section at a stamp show. We do not provide specific curriculums for teaching subjects using stamps; we expect Educators to use their imagination and unique talent to fit the program to their specific needs. Much philatelic information is obtained from Linn's Stamp News and several other philatelic journals. We search the internet for excellent projects and helpful instructions. Again, there are not enough hours in a day to create all this material ourselves, and Educators do not have time to search the internet for material they need. So why re-create the wheel when someone else has already done the work? Gathering all this information together is the real challenge. Most information off the internet was designed for educational use. Specific permission has been obtained for other materials to use for educational purposes only. Over time, we will refine the Educators Packet and make it more compact. For now, we like to use Collecting Made Easy, word find puzzles and Collectors' Workshop (specifically from Linn's), projects we have developed and any other philatelic articles of interest. Feel free to use any of this information as it fits your group. Pages that are photocopies are copy-free (copy to your heart's content) while booklets and pamphlets are not; additional copies of the booklets and pamphlets can be obtained at no cost from the issuing publisher -- just let us know what you need and we will have it sent out to you. Information copied directly from a philatelic journal is For Educational Purposes Only.

The first part of your Educators Packet is the Youth Beginners Kit. This kit will be updated as new information, activities and games are obtained, and as others become out of date, unavailable or out of stock. Included are several starter stamp albums, a packet of stamp hinges, extra glassines for the youth to sort stamps at home, and lots of information on how to collect stamps and take care of a stamp collection.

Then there is a list of E-mail and Internet philatelic organizations and dealers addresses. This list was revised in Spring 2004 to list only sites that would assist educators and youth. Please let us know if you have trouble with any of these web addresses or if you discover new ones worthy of being added to the list.

Next, you will find the Educators Section with loads of information, fun games and projects. There are many pamphlets and booklets that can be acquired in bulk without charge to provide to your classroom or youth group for any member(s) who would benefit. Some of the items from the USPS are difficult to acquire -- some Postal Clerks have never heard of the publications and some publications are simply difficult to acquire.

We will provide each registered Educator and Youth Group/Scout Leader a box of stamps, if needed, to

get started. We will also provide a checklist of philatelic items available which you can mail or fax letting us know what items you need for your class or club. Depending upon availability, we will ship stamps and supplies to you and contact any related vendors to have your booklet/brochure order shipped directly to you. Often times, once stamp dealers and collectors in your area discover an Educator using stamps in the classroom or a youth stamp club in the works, they will freely donate stamps and supplies. Some are even willing to come to your class or club and give a presentation on stamp collecting. We will work on this with you as we go along. All this takes time, but it is a lot of fun and quite enjoyable for our youth to discover the world, and explore history, through stamp collecting.

If you are a Youth Stamp Club Leader who wants to branch out in providing a youth table at your local stamp show(s), please write or e-mail us for information on how to get started.

Besides the Educators Packet, Educators and Youth Group Leaders will also receive the monthly newsletter published September through June, with a combined July/August issue. You may copy this newsletter for each member of your class or club. If you wish, we could include your club information in the newsletter (date of next meeting, time and meeting place as well as the topic for that month's meeting). If you want your club or class members to each receive the newsletter at their homes, the cost would be $8.00 per year, per member, which pays for the postage ($10.00 for Canadian members). Each member would also receive stamps in their individual newsletters.

Each registered Educator and Youth Leader would automatically receive all new philatelic pamphlets, educational material, etc., that we discover throughout the year. Sometimes, we receive donations that would be excellent for a class or club project, so please keep us up to date on your studies over the course of the school year. We will contact you to ascertain if you are interested in new items that come through donations.

Attached is a checklist of items we currently have available for Educators and Youth Leaders as well as a registration form. Besides the benefits listed in this informational letter, Educators and Youth Leaders may call us with questions and requests. The newsletters will inform you what shows we will be attending in order for you to obtain more materials and/or ask questions in person. Of course, feel free to bring your class to any shows we have tables at for a field trip and tour. Our web site is under construction with a new web master; we will let you know when it is complete.

If stamp collecting sounds like something your students and community would enjoy in or out of the classroom, please complete your registration form and mail with your dues. Youth Stamp Collectors is here to help you get started and down the road to help you keep your club going. Stamp Collecting – The educational hobby of a lifetime!

Sincerely,

Carol J. Edholm, Executive Director

Youth Stamp Collectors, #91-1958766

4404 - 224th Place SW

Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043-4150

Enclosures: Registration form

Materials checklist

Last Revised: November 2004

D:\Youth\TEACHERS\Educators Program informational letter.wpd