The Greek philosopher Plutarch said, “The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.” For most of us, philately has been a spark to lifelong learning. We inherited that thread from the generation before us and owe it to the generations after us to continue the legacy.
Frustrated collectors remind me that people younger than 30 don’t use the mail, so they don’t know what stamps are. The other point I often hear is that teens are always on their phones, so they are not interested in stamps. Polling shows that 90 percent of teens use phones to pass the time. That is, in an increasingly digital world, phones are the most accessible form of stimulus for them. Both points are valid.
In those same polls, 54 percent of teens worry they spend too much time on their phones. These numbers are telling us that, given another choice, they would put their phones down. If we are willing to adapt, we can put stamps into the hands of young people. We have to accept two critical points: 1. Future generations will not enter the hobby as we did, and 2. Just like your generation, not every young person who touches a stamp will become a collector for life. To quote the “Great One”, Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
Holocaust Stamps Project Exhibit
In the April 2020 issue of The American Philatelist, I shared the story of the Holocaust Stamp Project, which started at Foxborough Regional Charter School in 2009 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The program's mission was to collect 11 million stamps to represent each victim of the Holocaust. Students used the stamps to make artwork for peer-to-peer lessons about the Holocaust. We provided 750,000 stamps for the project with your support, and Mystic Stamp Company contributed one million to the project. The project concluded in 2019, and we agreed to take the stamps, artwork, and lesson material for an exhibit at the American Philatelic Center.
The exhibit will showcase the 11 million stamps collected, the student-developed projects, and displays of philatelic artifacts highlighting the postal connections in Europe during the Holocaust. Unfortunately, work on the exhibit was suspended with the closure of the APC and the pandemic. We restarted the project in 2021, completing it next month. We are planning an official dedication during Summer Seminar in June so our visiting APS members can be a part of the event. This exhibit will be a valuable resource as a learning tool for the local community and support additional projects around the country.
Stoughton High School Project Restarted
In the same article, I talked about our donation to Stoughton High School in Stoughton, Massachusetts, to help start the new Holocaust Stamps Project there. With the pandemic, the program was suspended in 2020 but restarted with the 2021 school year. Students have worked in groups to use the stamps for art projects. Jaime Regan, director of Stoughton High’s History Department, leads the project. She recently shared some examples of the students’ work. She also expressed her thanks for the support of APS members who have donated stamps for the project. To date, they’ve collected just over two million stamps.
If you are interested in donating stamps to Stoughton’s Holocaust Stamps Project, please contact Jaime Regan at [email protected]. They are processing donations as quickly as possible, but space is limited at this time.
Now that schools are operating on a more regular schedule, we are looking for new projects to support. If you know of a Holocaust Stamps Project or other school-based stamps project, please contact me at [email protected] to let me know how we can help.
Stoughton High Student Projects
Collage (Evie)
“This collage has 11 dehumanized figures that represent the 11 million people that were killed during the Holocaust. I used the butterfly and flower stamps to create the figures because I wanted to showcase the delicacy of the people but with the harsh black paper backing. The figures are all holding hands to show how they banded together to provide strength to each other.”
Candles (Izabel, Mia, and Brooke)
“The stamp project is a project that helps represent all of the lives lost when the Nazis were in power. There are 11 million stamps in total and our group used 621 stamps.
“For this project, my group and I decided to do 7 candles. Six of the candles that we made represent the other countries that were taken over by Nazi rule.
“The 7th candle, the biggest one, represents the Nazi party taking over. The Nazi party had all the power and that’s why we made it bigger. The biggest candle has german stamps. Each stamp represents a life that was lost during this time.
“Each of the small candles can fit inside the biggest candle, this shows how the Nazis had all the power and that they took over everyone else completely.”
Challah Platter (Sam)
“Using a total of 663 stamps, I decided to create a Challah plate. The word in the middle of the plate is the Hebrew word for Challah. Floral stamps were used to create the word, as many of the Challah plates that were looked at for research had beautiful floral designs. I wanted to incorporate those designs into the plate, hence the array of floral stamps.
“The border surrounding the Hebrew is made of warm-colored stamps from countries invaded by Nazi Germany. This is to represent the Jewish lives affected by the Holocaust.
“The bottom of the plate represents Nazi Germany, and it is made of stamps from the Deutsche Reich. The Deutsche Reich stamps overtaking the bottom of the plate, show how Nazi Germany tried to take over the countries represented by the stamps from the plate’s border, and how they attempted to wipe out Jews altogether.
“This plate serves as a reminder of the Holocaust, and as an honor to Jewish culture and the lives lost in the Holocaust.”
Scott personally delivered almost a million stamps to Foxborough Regional Charter School...on his way to the Show in Boxborough, MA, May, 2017...helping push the total past the HSP's 11,000,000-stamps goal! Photo by Charlotte Sheer. Scott is shown with Jamie Droste, who took over leadership of the HSP after Charlotte.