I like bumper stickers and yard signs and stuff that tells people who I am and what I support: “End Gun Violence.” “I ♥ Bruce Springsteen.” “Give Peace a Chance.” “Jon Stewart for President ‘08.”
Unfortunately, I share my cars and home with a curmudgeon who thinks bumpers should never be sullied with slogans and the only sign that should ever grace the front yard is “For Sale.”
No fun!
That’s why I turned to stamps as a form of expression. I’ve always loved the breast cancer research stamp, with its mythical goddess-of-the-hunt (presumably hunting for a cure) artwork. For a decade I haven’t minded paying extra for the stamp (it’s now 55 cents per stamp vs. 42 cents for a regular one), because it’s been an easy way to let everybody know about a cause I support.
But on the stamp’s 10th anniversary (July 29) I started wondering: What, exactly, am I supporting when I buy the pricier stamp? Is anybody else buying it? And is my extra 13 cents per stamp really fighting breast cancer?
The breast cancer research stamp was, to quote the United States Postal Service, “the first semi-postal stamp ever authorized by Congress for the specific purpose of raising funds from the American public to assist in finding a cure for breast cancer.” Congress reauthorizes the stamp every couple of years.
For good reason, it turns out. Lots of people are buying the stamp—more than 823.7 million stamps have been sold—and more than $62.5 million has been raised for breast cancer research. That money is divided between the National Institutes of Health (70 percent) and the Medical Research Program at the Department of Defense (DOD) (30 percent).
You can actually poke around on these sites and see what’s being funded, from chemo clinical trials to nanotechnology to incredibly complicated genetic research. I may not know what “Structural Characterization of the Interdomain Features of the Estrogen Receptor” is, but I am really encouraged that my stamp habit helped provide the University of Virginia with $454,500 of research money to figure it out.
In fact, the National Cancer Institute says that research funded by the proceeds of the stamp has helped develop a new chemically engineered synthetic peptide that has potential as an antitumor drug; the identification of 12 new breast cancer proteins, which may aid tumor research; and the development of a test that may be useful in breast and ovarian cancer prognosis. The DOD has made research progress in areas ranging from how healthy cells mutate to the immune system–breast cancer link.
Wow. I am definitely going to start writing more letters. You should too. To support the fight against breast cancer, head to the post office, call 800-782-6742, or visit USPS.com.
(PHOTO: USPS.COM)
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Comments (1)
I bloged about the stamp also. It is a great stamp and great to remind people they can easily make a donation when they pay their bills or corespond via mail.