First Introductions: The Stamp Club

In an age where technology distracts the youth from educational endeavours, the stamp club continues to be the first introduction the fascinating hobby of stamp collecting.

  

Decades ago stamp clubs numbered in the thousands and were often linked with organizations like the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, YMCA, etc. The Boy Scouts even have a badge for stamp collecting knowledge. But society changed and stamp clubs dwindled.



At one point stamp collecting and stamp clubs were more popular in foreign countries than in the United States where the hobby was created and perfected. Then the most ironic of developments: the advent of Ebay started allowing people to reconnect with stamps and clubs started springing up with specialty features and often adult-only membership. Many focus on certain types like air mail, or states that no longer exist like Rhodesia.

Kids Need Stamps are happy to assist any efforts to create, enhance or further the efforts of adults working to educate children about the educational and recreational value of stamp collecting.

Little Delicate Things: Stamps and Souls

Stamps like good wives are delicate things we often take for granted. (Shame on us.) Apparently so is regional stability in the Black Sea. (Shame on them.) While I don't mean to make light of marital or diplomatic relations, territorial conflicts, past and present, have the potential to reshape the world and the world of stamp collecting. Winners may emerge as new countries such as (Georgia & Kosovo) while losers (Rhodesia & South West Africa) might wind up having a new name and identity like Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Any international stamp collector worth their salt delves into the history, culture, politics, religion and geography out of sheer curiosity. Who are these people? Where did this place come from? What does this or that mean? Questions and answers make for broader knowledge yet also complete the collector as a genuine citizen of the world. Name another hobby that fits a such a wide bill of qualities and I will test it to the ends of the earth. This is the Hobby of Kings.

Sometimes we take Freedom for granted. It is being challenged and chastised by radicals and regimes who seek to rule by murder and myth. Lives are touched and changed forever by social movements bent on taking, preserving or destroying tracts of geography imprinted on those little delicate things we call stamps. As much as we love and cherish stamps we also pray democratic countries are not extinguished by dragons once thought slayed.