SUCCESS!!!!! NO MORE STAMPS NEEDED!!!!

BACKGROUND
​Why is the Foxborough Regional Charter School collecting STAMPS?

Each stamp that is collected symbolizes one wasted life, “thrown away” as having no value, much the same way as an envelope bearing a cancelled stamp postage stamp is tossed in the trash. Begun in 2009, the Holocaust Stamps Project is a component of community service learning (CSL), at FRCS.  It is a unique educational initiative that provides opportunities for students to gain a deeper understanding of how important it is to demonstrate acceptance, tolerance, and respect for diversity in their own daily lives. The goal is to collect 11,000,000 postage stamps as a way to symbolically honor every victim of the Holocaust.  Students and community volunteers trim and count the thousands of stamps that arrive daily from across the country and the world.  The wide range of themes depicted – people, world history, places, flora and fauna, inventions, ideas, and values – leads to discussions about what makes our diverse world so special. Eleven million is an unfathomable number. One and a half million were children. Six million were European Jews. An additional five million people were killed for being “different” or resisting the seemingly endless acts of disrespect, prejudice, discrimination, and cruelty by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime during World War II. Students at the Kindergarten to grade 12 Foxborough Regional Charter School in Foxborough, Massachusetts are collecting cancelled postage stamps. To help them gain an understanding of the significance of that many people having had their lives taken. They are collecting and counting one stamp, one life, at a time. Participants in the project are learning about how one man’s intolerance and prejudice resulted in the annihilation of so many innocent victims from 21 European countries.  Their study of this period in world history has revealed that the dangers of discrimination and bullying are self-evident. The Project has received donations from 33 states, Canada, Israel, England and Australia.  To date about 61% of the stamps needed to reach our goal have been received.  Remarkable progress has been made towards reaching the goal of collecting 11 million postage stamps. Every stamp that the students touch brings them one step closer to understanding the immediate impact and long term effects of the intolerance and incomprehensible evil acts of the Third Reich during World War II.

Even the youngest at FRCS are involved!  Kindergarten students in Mrs. Heidi Solivan’s class are learning to count by tens and hundreds using stamps donated to the Holocaust Stamps Project.

Our goal is not only to honor the memories the 11 million Holocaust victims, but also to celebrate the lives of those who still survive today and bravely share their powerful personal memories and stories. PLEASE KEEP SAVING STAMPS! If possible, TRIM to just outside the perforation and/or include a COUNT of how many stamps you are donating.  We welcome donations of used, damaged, or new stamps and unwanted stamp collections from individuals as well as clubs, businesses, churches and synagogues, and philatelists.

Holocaust Stamp Project
Foxborough Regional Charter School
131 Central Street, Foxboro, MA 02035
jdroste@foxboroughrcs.org

UPDATED January 23, 2017