APS took the opportunity to interview Captain Phil Kumler, USN (Retired), the Executive Director of First Stamps, a 501(c)3 non-profit, about his impression of WESTPEX and the journey to start his own company. His philatelic network of resources has been offered in over 30 countries across the globe.
- Talk about your impression of WESTPEX?
As a 2021 WESTPEX Committee Youth Leader, I’m biased, (WESTPEX 2021 was great!)
For the 50 youth that attended, it was exciting. Two local children who waited two years to return to a second WESTPEX. One woke his Mom up at 3:30 am and wanted to get going! Our Los Angeles, CA and Oregon youth were both show recipients of Silver Medals, and one of the groups attended the show.
- Are there any other shows or philatelic events that you have gone to or plan on going to?
We create weekly zoom stamp events for kids & their parents. Our staff has taught 3rd, 4th and 5th grade stamp collecting after school, language immersion and one daytime elective course at two different private & public schools 6-7 times in the past 10 years. FIRST STAMPS also runs annual educational activities at libraries & museums in Idaho, Oregon and Scouting University stamp collecting events at our Nation’s largest Marine Corps Base & at Navy Amphibious Base, Coronado in San Diego and collaborates with other dealers at Joint Base Lewis McCord in Washington (WASHJAM).
At one such event we helped the Silver Sage Council in Idaho recoup $6,800 for a bag of donated stamps and a foster kid’s parents spoke up at Qualcomm stadium and we guided them to collect $53,000 for one envelope of covers. In all donations we ask the ethical question – “What amount of discovery would cause us to contact you?” Twice we have returned donations or found items that exceeded the donation limit and made that phone call. In November, during the peak of mall shopping we host a FIRST STAMPS non-profit educational table at our local Barnes & Noble. We’ve supported regional shows and have amongst our volunteers, several adults with past or concurrent seats on the World Stamp Show, WESTPEX and PIPEX Committees.
FIRST STAMPS is eleven years old as a 501©3 non-profit and has staffed WSP youth areas in Ohio, California, Arizona and Oregon. Our Board of Directors generally prefers to support shows within one direct flight or driving distance from the I-5 corridor (WEST COAST) and have a non-profit booth on the bourse. Our pop warner version of YLPF is called “Dealer for a Day” and is only for youth that have collected for 3-4 years. By that time (see video on our website {FIRSTSTAMPS.ORG}) our kids really enjoy an inside look at the stamp show marketplace.
- What inspired you to create First Stamps?
I was the only nephew of the late DR Charles T. Hathaway, who earned a blue ribbon at the early age of 12 from a Garfield Perry show. He later matriculated from doctoral studies in chemistry at MIT and then invented MARLATE MOUNTS for the benefit of philately. I still have his youth exhibit along with my first album. At AMPERIPEX in 1986 he had me working Wednesday-Sunday for his last MARLATE MOUNTS show. A year later our 2-year old son, Ryan was life-flighted to Wyler’s Children’s Hospital after an accident and eventually fully recovered. Ronald McDonald House which is adjacent to their ICU, thereafter became our flagship charity! At 53, Mark Hathaway and I sold my majority shareholder ownership of a Pacific Northwest based regional engineering sales corporation, and at 60, I retired with a regular Navy pension. If you love something, try giving it away. So, I thought about stamp collecting. It was the out-patient nursing staff, Doug Kohlhagen at RMH, and fellow APS members; Bob Beall, Winn Ibert, Carol Edholm, Larry Spray and Bill Seymour who all suggested ways I might actually excel at inviting youth into our hobby. FIRST STAMPS officially began in 2010.
National shared that FIRST STAMPS’ merit badge counselors matriculated 12-15% of the Nation’s stamp collecting merit badges over the past three years. Using zoom we’ve had to source selected topics and countries these scouts need. So yes, we are always actively collecting stamps & covers for youth. To avoid an obvious conflict of interest, I will readily admit to readers that I’m personally partial to local stamps from Rattlesnake Island (I grew up on the shores of Lake Erie) and my wife’s heritage country which resulted in our collection from the Azores.
- If yes, who inspired you to collect stamps?
My Uncle “Tom” Hathaway, who also inspired me to create FIRST STAMPS.
- What has been your biggest accomplishment since First Stamps launched?
The honor of leading 47 amazing unpaid adult volunteers, here’s my best example of that:
We provide 30 families meal service and a youth stamp night at several Ronald McDonald Houses (RMH). During a recent change of leadership, I was being questioned to see if my adult volunteers were actually certified food handlers. When I explained that our favorite restaurant catering service had used the exact same menu we’d used in the past. I even recalled feeding a whole plate with lemon bars and lasagna to a 5 1/2-yr old as a first meal after brain surgery. Then the RMH Regional Manager started to tremble, her eyes watered, then she quietly said Brandon had just returned as a 21-yr old adult volunteer. Our inspection was immediately over.
- Talk about your connection with the Sanaga Yong Chimpanzee Rescue?
My daughter is the marketing director of Yellowstone’s Bear World in Idaho so I’m always asking FIRSTSTAMPS kids to collect stamps with animals on them. About four years ago, Susan Labhard, RN, local Director of Shriner’s Out-Patient Services insisted that my wife and I support her at a Willamette Club charity fundraiser dinner. Their silent auction raised six figures that night but totally lacked any Chimpanzee items. So I asked Dr Yong and her staff if they would enjoy having a topical chimpanzee stamp exhibit made by kids in a future silent auction. They were ecstatic. Many parents would love to see their children help raise money for the world’s best wild chimpanzee rescue. It’s no secret that youth who collect stamps are going places. First Stamps had a youth who earned an exhibit medal at PIPEX in 2015. Today that same child is working at the Salem Hospital and completed 7 years of college and graduate school with her medical degree. We are definitely focused outside of the standard APS sphere of influence when it comes to adults.
Most of our volunteers are knitters who sit well with stamp collectors. Very few of the parents bringing us youth are stamp collectors. We ask these parents what does Jaime Faukner, Micheal Dell, Warren Buffett and Mark Cuban Jr. have in common? The answer…they are all stamp collectors. If you want your children to be successful, try stamp collecting as a hobby.
In past years we have also earned unsolicited grants from Booz-Allen Hamilton, Ameriprise, Doctors at Cleveland Clinic, Northwest Philatelic Library, NSDA and/or “in kind” generosity from the Portland Stamp Company, Re/Max Equity Group, David Markowitz, Mystic, Stanley Piller, A to Z, Kathy Seed, OSS Foundation and Ed Dimmick. Collectors like Ray Milner and estate grants from Julie Spray & the Peterson family have also made our travel, insurance and rent expenses quickly disappear. Philanthropy is certainly helping us grow.
- Talk about the stamp chess program and your favorite moments from it?
The Director of FIRST TEES convinced the National Golf annual federation that only courses with an annual tournament to raise money for youth could earn special sanctions. She claimed those tournaments raised $30,000 each and sent hundreds of used club sets to local junior high schools. When I arranged to interviewed her, she said she loved my passion for what I do, but that I’d be better off talking nerds in a “Chess Club.” During the pandemic, I was on zoom with some boy scouts from Doylestown, Pennsylvania and Russ, who was one of the scouts, said he loved to play chess. I said “you can do that with stamps.” Mr. Carlson, his other teacher, also recognized that same proclivity and had Russ make a wooden chess board for his shop class. My second merit badge zoom class with Russ in World Citizenship added a Monarchy topical stamp collection as his required international exhibit. Within 4 months he had a true three-dimensional exhibit with rooks, knights and was playing stamp chess on-line from his fellow chess club members. When kids tell us they “aren’t down with collecting stamps” we ask them what their true passion is. Circling back, they fall in love with adding a philatelic twist to the equation.
- What are some goals that you have for the future of the First Stamps?
Succession planning and continued strategic mentoring from philatelic leaders like Vesma Grinfelds, Niko Courtelis and as Scott English so aptly asked at WESTPEX 2021, “Phil, are you still operating outside the box?” To everyone of our readers, we see the future of philately as definitely letting our FIRST STAMPS’ kids own that old box of stamps…
- Anything else you would like to add?
I would like to say a special thank you to our supporting stamp dealers. We are sending back customers every day.