February 22, 2001 | Read Time: 2 minutes
By NICOLE LEWIS
The United States Postal Service plans to issue five new first-class stamps, starting in 2002, to help raise money to battle diseases and other problems that afflict large numbers of Americans.
The stamps, called semi-postals, will be priced higher than regular first-class stamps, and the extra revenue will be directed to one or more federal agencies to benefit the cause depicted on the stamp.
The Postal Service expects to announce soon what organizations can do to increase the chances that a particular cause will be featured on the new stamps.
The first semi-postal was introduced in 1998 and benefits breast-cancer research. So far, 274 million stamps have been sold, producing $19.2-million for research.
The National Institutes of Health, which oversees the National Cancer Institute, receives 70 percent of the revenue, while the Medical Research Program of the Department of Defense receives 30 percent.
Ernest Bodai, a California doctor and founder of Cure Cancer Now, a nonprofit organization dedicated to breast-cancer research, drummed up the idea of selling stamps to raise money for breast-cancer research. He collaborated with the Women’s Information Network Against Breast Cancer, in Covina, Calif., to lobby Congress to pass the Stamp Out Breast Cancer Act.
Cancer groups say the stamp has been a big help to their cause.
The stamp “was a lovely vehicle for awareness and it operated on the very most important basic tenet of fund raising, which is that everyone is welcome to join the fight by just spending 40 cents,” said Sally Cooper, spokeswoman for the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations, in New York.
She adds: “My guess is that many thousands of people bought a stamp who wouldn’t otherwise give money to nonprofits for a variety of reasons.”
The alliance, as well as several other breast-cancer groups, pressed Congress to extend the Stamp Out Breast Cancer Act, which was to end in July, so sales of the stamp are authorized through July 2002.
When the extension expires, a new semi-postal will be released for a two-year span. Only one semi-postal will be in circulation at a time.
Don Smeraldi, a spokesman for the Postal Service, said the new stamps will feature issues with a “national impact” that affect a “wide population.”
The exact criteria for subjects of the new stamps will be published soon on the Postal Service’s Web site (http://www.usps.com), said Mr. Smeraldi, along with instructions on how and where to submit suggestions.
The price of the new semi-postal stamps has not been determined. But it will probably follow the same rule as the breast-cancer stamp, costing no more than 25 percent above the first-class rate.
