One Sunday afternoon our front doorbell rang, and in came Kelvin Woodward, Treasurer of our congregation, Kardinya Uniting Church.
“Hi Betty,” he said. “Are you still collecting used stamps?”
“Yes,” I replied, “For Frontier Services!”
When Kelvin said he had a few boxes for us, I gestured with my hands a box the size of a shoe box.
“No,” Kelvin said, spreading his arms wide to indicate a very large box.
We went out to his car and sure enough in the boot there was four very large boxes, which contained the front of addressed envelopes with the stamp attached. Kelvin was helping his 98-year-old Dad to declutter his garage. He had collected used postage stamps for a now defunct mission project and the boxes had been stored in his garage for at least 20 years.
Over the following weeks, whenever my husband Reg and I had been out we came home to find another two boxes of used stamps sitting on our front veranda. Eventually the boxes of used stamps stored in our shed numbered thirteen.
The Uniting Church WA Mission Fellowship Stamp Team, based at Bicton Uniting Church, sort stamps to sell and raise funds for people doing it tough in Australia’s outback, through Frontier Services. I phoned Bob Lockley, co-ordinator of the Stamp Team, to let him know we had some boxes to donate to the project, and that he needed the church bus to come pick them up as there were too many to fit in our car.
Bob and his wife Kay managed to squeeze all the boxes into their four wheel drive vehicle, and the Stamp Team now have the stamps ready to sort.
Well done, and thank you Kelvin and his Dad.
Betty Pearson