Post office gives away $3,600 in collectable stamps, prizes

Story and photo by Staff Sgt. Travis Edwards
86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs


The KMC Air Force post offices in conjunction with the U.S. Postal Service celebrated National Stamp Collecting Month by offering $3,600 in prizes during the month of October.

“It’s a way for us to offer an incentive to get the public involved in a national past time that’s not well known by the younger generation,” said Master Sgt. Joshua Keenan, KMC Air Force Postal Operations section chief. “Stamps now have everything from Marvel super heroes and baseball cards to going green and the Civil War on them.

“There’s a stamp for anybody,” he said. “You just have to look.”

To help get the little ones more involved in the design process, KMC Postal Services offered a blank-stamp canvas for KMC kindergarten, first and second-grade children to draw on. The artwork can be seen at the Kapaun and Ramstein post offices.

“It’s something for the children so when they go into the post office with their parents, they’ll say, ‘look, I did that,’” said Keenan, a native of Toronto, Ohio.
Col. Michael Monson, 86th Mission Support Group commander, was on hand Tuesday at the Ramstein Elementary School with Kelly the Koala, to present the prizes.

“Everyone did a great job on these stamp designs,” said Monson. “Thank you all so much for participating in this event.”

The prizes given away were novelty-sized stamps featuring well-known superheroes.

“We just want to get the word out about the excitement that can come along with collecting stamps,” said Staff Sgt. Jeff Pilgreen, Northside Post Office head of finance and coordinator for the event. “It’s not every day that you get your art work hung up at a public place, this is something special for them.”