Stamp Launch at Museum of Natural History
In celebration of Stamp Collecting Month, Canada Post will unveil new whale stamps at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax on Monday, Oct. 2.
About 60 students from École Beaufort and St. Mary's Elementary School in Halifax, will join Canada Post representatives for the national launch in the Marine Room at the museum.
Stamp Collecting Month is part of an international effort to interest children in the hobby of stamp collecting. The new stamps feature four of Canada's most well-known whales - the blue, bowhead, beluga and narwhal whales.
The ceremony will include songs, speeches, a seminar on stamp design, and stamp collecting activities. Special guests include noted marine expert Paul Brodie, museum director Debra Burleson, stamp designer Steven Slipp, and Brian Bonia, Canada Post's Atlantic director of retail operations. Local entertainer Rose Vaughan will act as master of ceremonies, providing original songs based on the whale theme.
Stamp Collecting Month is a month-long international campaign designed to raise awareness and promote stamp collecting - one of the world's most popular hobbies.
The Museum of Natural History is an ideal setting for the national launch with its whale models and skeletons. The museum also supports Stamp Collecting Month with numerous public programs during October, including: -- Sunday, Oct. 15, 1:30 p.m.: The continuing story of the right whale at Uniacke Estate Museum Park in Mount Uniacke, with museum zoologist Andrew Hebda. The small population of North Atlantic right whales are in peril. Uniacke Estate Museum Park is home to the skeletal remains of a juvenile right whale which died after being struck by a ship in the Bay of Fundy in 1997. -- Special display of stamps with a marine theme. -- Design your own whale stamp workshop for children, Saturday, Oct. 7, beginning at 10 a.m., with local designer Steven Slipp. Mr. Slipp has designed several stamps including the $1 loon and $2 polar bear stamps. -- A weekly school class called Big Whales for Little People. The museum has offered this class for nearly 30 years to more than 15,000 school children. -- A meeting location for the Junior Stamp Club and the Nova Scotia Stamp Club for more than 25 years.
Stamps and First Day Covers will be available at participating postal outlets, or by mail order from the National Philatelic Centre. Call toll-free 1-800-565-4362 in Canada and the US. Stamp information may also be found on Canada Post's website at www.canadapost.ca .