Below is Brad's letter, updated for February, 2007:
Dear "Stamp Collectors":
On February 12, 2007 the Quaker Missions Project mailed out a $500 check to Right Sharing of World Resources. That donation reached the $54,000 mark in total giving by the project since its inception 11 years ago, the vast majority of funds raised from the sale of used postage stamps. By the late February 2007 the total amount raised had reached $54,400.
Thanks to the efforts of hundreds of F(f)riends all over the world, 84 different "Good Works" have received financial help over the first 10 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 $9,100
Right Sharing of World Resources $7,400
Monteverde Friends School (scholarships) $2,550
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.) $1,475
Medicines, lab equipment at Lugulu Hospital, Kenya $1,425
Quaker Earthcare Witness (formerly Friends Committee on Unity with Nature) $2,600
Wilmington, Ohio, college Peace Center $875
American Friends Service Committee $1,300
Friends Committee on National Legislation $1,100
Project Lakota (St. Louis Friends Meeting) $1,600
Associated Committee of Friends for Indian Affairs $760
Cuban church repairs $400
FUM (Nugent/Rehard support) $700
New England Yearly Meeting Young Friends $400
Jeannette Rankin Peace Center (Montana) $600
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 39 cent Flag and Statue of Liberty stamps, the 37 cent Flag stamps, the 37-cent Heron stamp, or the 34 cent Statue of Liberty 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
Quaker Missions Mattapoisett Friends Meeting
P.O. Box 795
Mattapoisett, MA 02739
USA
We thank you for taking part, look for your continuing support and want you to know you are needed more than ever.