| 'Fund the Cure' Breast Cancer Awareness Stamp | |||
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| Netlore Archive: The U.S. Postal Service is selling special stamps to promote breast cancer awareness and raise breast cancer research funds | |||
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Email example contributed by J. Shortt, 23 Oct 2000:
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US Postal Service STAMPS for Breast Cancer We need those of you who are great at forwarding on info with your e-mailnetwork. Please read and pass on. Peace and good health! It would be wonderful if 2000 was the year that a cure for breast cancer was found. This is one note you'll gladly pass on. The notion that $16 million could be raised by buying a book of stamps is powerful!! As you may be aware, the US Postal Service recently released its new "Fund the Cure" stamp to help fund breast cancer research. The stamp was designed by Ethel Bessler of Bethesda, Maryland. It is important that everyone take a stand against this disease that kills and maims so many of our mothers, sisters and friends. Instead of the normal $.33 for a stamp, this one costs $.40. The additional $.07 will go to breast cancer research. A "normal" book costs $6.60. This one is only $8.00. If all these stamps are sold, it will raise an additional $16,000,000 for this vital research. Possibly almost as important is our support. It would make an important statement if the stamp outsold the lottery this week. What a statement it would make that we care. Here are two things we can each do TODAY: 1. Go out and purchase some of these stamps. 2. E-mail your friends to do the same. Many of us know women and their families whose lives are turned upside-down by breast cancer. It takes so little to do so much in this drive. Please help! Thank YOU! |
Comments: True, as announced in a July 29, 1998 press release from the U.S. Postal Service:
WASHINGTON – First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Postmaster General William Henderson today issued a new postage stamp to help raise funds for breast cancer research. The issuance ceremony was held in the East Room of the White House, officially launching the first U.S. stamp in history to have its net proceeds above the cost of postage earmarked for research organizations."About 2 million American women suffer from breast cancer today," said the First Lady. "This deadly disease, which claims a woman’s life every 12 minutes, has touched the lives of so many American families, including the President’s own. I am proud to build on the President’s long-standing commitment to breast cancer prevention and research. This historic stamp will be invaluable in our efforts to increase research funding and save lives."
Fundraising was so successful in 1998 and 1999 that legislation was signed in July 2000 to extend the stamp's issuance. As of that date, 215 million stamps had been sold, raising $15.1 million for National Institutes of Health and Defense Department cancer research.
The stamps can still be purchased at any post office or online at the U.S. Postal Service Website.
More information:
USPS - Fundraising Stamps
U.S. Postal ServiceBreast Cancer Stamp Lives On
From About's Guide to Breast Cancer, 28 July, 2000
