School Stamp Clubs

School stamp clubs require three things: interested students, a dedicated adult leader, and a program that is geared to the interest of the students. There are always a few students that are interested enough in things beyond the local community that they will enjoy stamp collecting, and will pursue it as a hobby, with or without support (support helps maintain that interest, and is a major component in ensuring a new stamp collector continues to collect!). Dedicated adult leaders are harder to find, but there are usually several stamp collectors in any community, and one or more of them should be willing to support a local school stamp club. Both the links provided above offer program ideas for young collectors. It only requires the thinking and planning of the adult leader to implement some of those ideas into programs the local students find interesting.

Unfortunately, one of the many things that stirred the interest of collectors in my generation no longer is a major factor in the stamp community. As a young boy, I was bombarded with advertising promoting stamp collecting: it was rampant in the magazines and comics I read, it was presented in the Sunday supplements to the newspapers, and found in many other places throughout the community. Another source that perked my interest that no longer exists is the local dime store that carried stamp packets. Both the dime stores and the stamp packets are things of the past, and stamp collecting has suffered from the consequences of their disappearance. Not only have the dime stores and stamp packets disappeared, but so have many of the approval dealers that used to supply stamps to young collectors by mail. This, too, has had an effect on young collectors.

As the old saying goes, "Nature abhors a vacuum", and a new source of information and materials has replaced the dime stores, approval dealers, and newspaper advertising - the Internet. Thanks to the Internet, not only are students exposed to thousands of websites advertising stamp collecting, they are also exposed to virtually every culture in the world! This promotes interests in other nations, and that can lead to an interest in stamp collecting.

There are online stamp clubs, stamp forums, and stamp chat groups, but nothing is as satisfying to stamp collectors as getting together and discussing stamps and stamp collecting, face to face. Trading, too, is best carried

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