Winter Carnival stamp cancellation, holiday stamp unveiling Saturday

The Daily Mining Gazette - Published: Thursday, February 08, 2007

Winter Carnival stamp cancellation, holiday stamp unveiling Saturday
HOUGHTON — The U.S. Postal Service will hold a special ceremony Saturday at Michigan Tech’s Memorial Union commemorating Winter Carnival and highlighting a local snowflake.

An enlargement of the 2006 Holiday Snowflake Stamps will be unveiled at 3 p.m. in the Memorial Union Ballroom. It features a square of four elegant snowflake photographs taken by Caltech physicist Kenneth Libbrecht. He snapped the one at the lower left in Houghton during a January 2005 visit to Michigan Tech.

Special guests will be Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Menominee; Kane Beauchamp, staff assistant for Senator Debbie Stabenow; Amy Berglund, U.P. regional representative for Senator Carl Levin; David Martin, district manager of the USPS; Paul Trybom, manager of post office operation, USPS; and Houghton Mayor Eric Peterson. In addition, John Jaszczak, associate professor of physics, will discuss the snowflakes and tell how one from the Upper Peninsula came to be featured by the USPS.

The event also offers a special opportunity for stamp aficionados or anyone with a yen for Winter Carnival memorabilia. Visitors can purchase the holiday stamps and have them hand-cancelled by postal officials from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the Peninsula Room, on the ground floor of the Memorial Union.

As a community service, the Postal Service offers pictorial postmarks to commemorate local events celebrated in communities throughout the nation.

This pictorial cancellation stamp, specially made in Marquette, will feature this year’s Winter Carnival logo. The Postal Service is providing post cards and Tech is offering envelopes to those wishing to have their stamps hand-cancelled during this special pictorial cancellation. You can also bring your own cards and envelopes.

Postal Service employees, including Pam Hiltunen, the postmaster of the Chassell Post Office, will be stamping envelopes with the special Winter Carnival stamp.

Hiltunen had the idea for a pictorial cancellation after learning that one of the holiday stamp snowflakes had fallen to earth in the Copper Country. “I contacted our district people and told them I thought it would be a good tie-in for a pictorial cancellation,” she said.

“The connection of the snowflake stamp to Michigan Tech and Houghton really makes this special,” she added. “There are not many communities that have had such an opportunity, and it brings an added bonus to what is already such a great event.”

The cancellation will also be available by mail for 30 days after the event by sending, under separate cover, a stamped addressed envelope to Pictorial Cancellation, Houghton Post Office, 701 Shelden Ave., Houghton, Mich. 49931-9998.