In March 2020, Development Assistant Erin Seamans interviewed three of the American Philatelic Society’s regular volunteers. Darlene and Leonard Bloom, and Debbie Cleeton, spend several days a week at the American Philatelic Center, and the APS has made many thousands of dollars through their combined efforts to organize your donations. Read an excerpt of their interview below.
Editor's Note: These interviews reflect the experiences of our volunteers as of early March 2020. The American Philatelic Center is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic on the orders of Pennsylvania Governor Wolf. Darlene, Leonard, Debbie, and the other fantastic volunteers of the APS are currently taking a well-deserved break at home.
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Erin: When did you start volunteering at APS? Why did you initially start?
Debbie: I first learned about volunteer work week in 2011 and decided to check it out. First project – stripping philatelic materials from donated albums. I returned for volunteer work week in 2012 and 2013. Both years Richard had me working on projects applying donated Mint U.S. postage to envelopes to be used by various APS departments on their outgoing mail. In November of 2013 I returned to start volunteering for about 15 hours a week and I’m now volunteering 20 hours a week, applying postage to envelopes and mailers. The use of the donated postage helps to offset the cost of the huge volume of letters and packages sent out every day.
Leonard: On the website, stamps.org, I saw they needed help for the library move in 2016. I expected a pile of people to show up and only about 6-7 people showed. I was shocked that not more people would have shown up.
Darlene: During the library move, I remember a guy, Charlie from New York, who had an interesting t-shirt on for Volunteer Work Week. I honestly really wanted the t-shirt and so we participated in the 2016 Volunteer Work Week. Leonard ended up hitting it off with another volunteer, Richard and we made a plan to come back later that year.
Leonard: I told another volunteer, Richard, that I would come back during the winter and help out which he didn’t seem convinced of but I did keep my word. Darlene and I ended up coming in about three days a week that winter and over time we have increased our time to about five days a week now. At the beginning of our time as volunteers, be able to work with Betsy Gamble of the library staff was a big incentive. She was so nice to us and she really stood out to me.
From left: Volunteers Darlene and Leonard Bloom, and Debbie Cleeton.
Erin: What does a typical day look like when you volunteer?
Leonard: When you commit to something, you really commit, so when different volunteers arrive I make sure to be here to help them. We process donations, help people when they come into the gift shop, ready the items for resale and ready the items for auctions when needed. We determine where the donations need to go to best benefit the APS.
Darlene: You never know what you’ll come across when you’re going through donations. The Keith Stupell Gift Shop, located in the APRL, shares space with the Stamp and Cover Shop which offers the public an opportunity to purchase donated material. All profits benefit the Education Department. Items for sale include philatelic materials such as collections, covers, first day covers, supplies and much more. Many donations go towards kids, and various education programs.
Leonard: If someone is interested in visiting the Stamp and Cover shop, we encourage you to email us at lbloom@stamps.org ahead of time to let us know the day and time and what you’re interested in so we can support you. This can also be a great opportunity for clubs to visit the American Philatelic Center to see everything we have to offer, from circuit sales, to the American Philatelic Research Library, to the Stamp and Cover shop.
Debbie: Once Darlene and Leonard pre-sort U.S. mint postage from donated materials, it is given to me and I further sort them to be applied to covers for various departments at the APS. There are ongoing projects and I enjoy the creative outlet. I try to keep covers interesting for stamp collectors. By selecting specific stamps, I can create, when possible, topical covers or highlight something timely like the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. Every project is a new learning experience. Some examples of the things I’ve learned about are countries that no longer exist, politics, art, language, currencies, etc. When I think about it, at the end of the day my brain has somewhat been donated to philately; when I am applying postage I am using my left side for math and the right side for creating.
Leonard: I should also mention that sometimes we will receive back the mailers and envelopes that Debbie applied postage to in our new donations, so it’s somewhat of a recycling process, and shows that collectors save these beautiful covers.
Erin: Are you a current/past stamps collector?
Darlene: I am not a stamp collector, but I do enjoy putting stamps on envelopes. When I first started volunteering here I learned a lot from Richard, who was patient with me. Eventually I ended up starting to collect perfins.
Leonard: I am a stamp collector; I started stamp collecting as a kid. I collected mostly German stamps because I lived in Germany for some time. I still do collect stamps, but not as much as I used to.
Debbie: I would say I am a past collector as I’m not accumulating anything new at this time. (The great myth called “downsizing.”) I started collecting when I was given a box from my father’s estate; I sat down and went through bundles of used and unused worldwide postage from the first half of the 20th century. I was fascinated by the idea that some of these stamps might have been used on personal correspondence from long, long, ago.
Erin: What is a memorable moment in your time volunteering?
Leonard: Darlene made a discovery of something that there is only one of them known. I was sitting right beside her when she found it - a surcharge error on an Eagle envelope.
Darlene: I just remember when we were processing through a collection, seeing an envelope with postage on the backside and thinking "this doesn't look right".
Leonard: It is a one of a kind item and was highlighted in the April 2018 AP. The envelope itself is in the reference collection here at the American Philatelic Center.
Debbie: While digitizing a slideshow of Civil War era correspondence, I found a cover addressed to someone who may very well be from my father’s family. It really caught my eye when I saw it and the investigation continues.
Erin: Besides donating your time, do you also donate to APS/APRL and if so what are your hopes for your philanthropy?
Darlene: We have donated to the library in the past and more recently the education programs.
Leonard: We donated to StampsTeach over Giving Tuesday, and designated a StampsTeach package to a local school in our area so that we continue to support the hobby of stamp collecting.
Debbie: I hope the covers I’m creating help to promote the hobby and keep members interested and continuing to collect philatelic material. There has been positive feedback from members who have received a mailer or parcel that I worked on and who have shared the covers with friends and family.
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Part of this interview was first published in the April 2020 Recognition issue of The American Philatelist. The full issue is available to read online at stamps.org/the-american-philatelist. Thank you to all of our volunteers!