Below is Brad's letter, updated for April, 2009:
Dear "Stamp Collectors":
On March 2, 2009 the Quaker Missions Project mailed out a $1400 check to Right Sharing of World Resources and another $300 to Monteverde Friends School. Those donations reached the $71,275 mark in total giving by the project since its inception 13 years ago, the vast majority of funds raised from the sale of used postage stamps.
Thanks to the efforts of hundreds of F(f)riends all over the world, 103 different "Good Works" have received financial help over the first 13 years. This seems to be a remarkable achievement considering the source of much of the funding has been from the little regarded used postage stamp. We thank every one of you for your continued support. And we thank our volunteers in the Mattapoisett area who help with the processing of donated stamps.
Following are some of the leading recipients of funding over the years:
Friends World Committee for Consultation $9,600
Right Sharing of World Resources $10,300
Monteverde Friends School (scholarships) $3,900
Palestinian Refuge Children Play Center (Ramallah) $1,850
Quaker United Nations Office $1,100
Quang Ngai Rehabilitation Center (Vietnam) $1,100
African Great Lakes Initiative (trauma healing, etc.) $1,825
Medicines, lab equipment at Lugulu Hospital, Kenya $1,425
Quaker Earthcare Witness (formerly Friends Committee on Unity with Nature) $2,940
Wilmington, Ohio, college Peace Center $875
American Friends Service Committee $1,500
Friends Committee on National Legislation $1,100
Project Lakota (St. Louis Friends Meeting) $1,750
Associated Committee of Friends for Indian Affairs $760
Cuban church repairs $400
FUM (Nugent/Rehard support) $800
New England Yearly Meeting Young Friends $400
Jeannette Rankin Peace Center (Montana) $800
Peace,
Brad Hathaway
Quaker Missions, PO Box 795, Mattapoisett, MA 02739
Here are some tips that will help the Quaker Missions Project:
In addition to stamps we also recycle Box Tops for Education; picture postcards and government postal cards in their entirety; old and new covers of philatelic value; historical paper including photographs, documents, prints, autographs, etc. Please query if you have any questions. Do not remove stamps from very old letters, as the envelopes and letters can have considerable value.
Please do not save any of the 41cent, small Flag stamps or the Liberty Bell forever stamps. It is not cost effective to mail them to us. All other stamps, domestic and foreign, are welcome. And please use commemorative stamps on all of your letters and packages. The bulk of our income is from used commemoratives. Postage meters are worthless to us.
Encourage other Friends in your meeting to take part. Better still, have a "stamp collector" volunteer to lead a meeting-wide effort to collect, remembering we get the best return on used U.S. and foreign commemoratives (although all stamps can be sold). If you have relatives and/or friends overseas, ask them if they will be "collectors" in their neighborhood.
Use special care in clipping or tearing stamps from envelopes. Obviously damaged stamps (clipped perforations, tears, thinned paper because stamps have been peeled from envelopes, etc.) have no resale value and should not be sent. Clip neatly around the stamps, leaving about 1/8 inch margin. Do NOT soak the stamps off the paper.
Use commemorative stamps on all of your mail and encourage your correspondents to do the same. (We realize nothing from postage meters). You can ask for them at your post office as well as you can the regular stamps, which are of far less value.
Make contact with a business or businesses that receive a lot of bill payments by mail and clip the commemoratives. If you know of someone who gets foreign mail tell them about the project.
Should any of you have any questions, please contact
Earl Walker
Claremont Friends Meeting
449 Alamosa Dr.
Claremont, CA 91711-1942
We thank you for taking part, look for your continuing support and want you to know you are needed more than ever.