As recently mentioned in another post, we have surpassed 100,000 stamps donated (and formally counted).

...Due to various issues with doing a reboot from Canada (mostly explained below) we are changing our objective from the original project's "11 million stamps - one for every life lost to The Holocaust" to "1.5 million stamps - one for every child's life lost to The Holocaust". If/when we achieve that more modest goal, we may bump it up (or possibly - but not hopefully - close down the extension of this project). Given the worldwide rise in political "populism" (often linked to the rise in intolerance and racism) we think this project is more important than ever, and are hoping that the project will continue well into the future.

...We haven't been able to secure a single school as a sponsor/partner (unlike the original project's unique association with the Foxborough Regional Charter School). Unfortunately, our public schools change principals every 3 years on average so there is no consistent long-term focus on maintaining important/unique projects - it is all driven by short-term "how do I look to my superintendent/trustee" considerations, and each new principal expunges their predecessor's initiatives accordingly.

...Luckily, we have gotten some buy-in from individual students, local retirement groups, a sorority, and many family/friends. So the sorting/trimming/counting aspect is ok. And we are going to start reaching out to Synagogues, Masonic Temples, and Jehovah's Witnesses congregations - all groups targeted during The Holocaust (you may not have known about the last two groups - and I suspect neither may they!)

...When schools return next week, we will be pursuing art departments to initiate a project to convert our stamps into Holocaust-related art collages (a very popular aspect of the project).

Thanks for your support, and more info to come, Craig.

 
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re: Holocaust Stamps Project (Canada) Activity Update - Part 1

Thanks Peter. You are totally spot-on about the website being an important tool for promoting the project.

Our SOR member (and sponsor) "roy" was incredibly generous and instrumental in helping us establish the website and use his server as a host. But unfortunately, Dave ("lemaven") is an old geezer who is useless with technology and we haven't yet been able to get someone savvy in the technology to help us improve it.

Now that kids are returning to school we hope to find someone sooner rather than later...

Craig.

 
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