St. Valentine joined St. Jude to share some love this week.
The Postal Service dedicated Made of Hearts, this year’s Love stamp, at an event held at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN, in time for Valentine’s Day.
The hospital, which is named for the patron saint of the impossible, treats children with catastrophic diseases, such as leukemia and other cancers.
It was an ideal setting to unveil the Made of Hearts stamp, according to David E. Williams, the Postal Service’s chief operating officer, who spoke at the ceremony.
“What you do here every day symbolizes love — love for life, love for our children, love for those less fortunate,” Williams said, noting that the hospital’s groundbreaking work has helped push the survival rate for childhood cancer from 20 percent in 1962 to more than 80 percent today.
Steve Froehlich, senior vice president, direct marketing, for ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, discussed how mail is used to raise money for the hospital and thanked Postal Service employees for their efforts.
“You’ve helped us reach even more donors, more volunteers and more supporters, who in turn have helped St. Jude save even more lives around the world,” he said.
Made of Hearts features horizontal lines of red and pink hearts on a white background. The stamp is available in panes of 20 at Post Offices across the nation and usps.com.
The Love series originated in 1973. Although USPS releases the stamp early each year, it isn’t just for Valentine’s Day and can also be used for birthday cards, wedding invitations, birth announcements and other mailings.
Melvina Young, a Hallmark Cards senior writer who spoke at the ceremony, told attendees that the stamps will remind people of the most powerful emotion of all.
“Look at love. Look how it lifts, how it lightens the load, how it empowers, how it cures, how it saves, how it connects us — heart to heart,” she said. “Look at how it can make the world better, one life at a time, by making each of us feel seen, held, known and valued for being exactly who we are.”
