In a record-breaking fundraising effort, an Australian Lions Club has raised nearly $50,000 this year by reselling used stamps to collectors.
Members of the Tamworth Peel Valley Lions Club sort donated collections and businesses’ old mail, and every stamp is trimmed, packaged and auctioned to stamp collectors from across Australia. All proceeds go directly to the Australian Lions Children’s Mobility Foundation.
At one auction, a 27.5-kilogram lot of stamps sold for $3,750 AU (about $4,000 Cdn.) while another eight-kilogram lot brought $1,600 AU (about $1,450 Cdn.).
Since the project launched 15 years ago, the group has donated nearly $130,000 to the foundation.
In Canada, Oxfam Canada manages a similar philatelic fundraising program, “Stamp Out Poverty,” which raises about $10,000 annually by sorting and selling used stamps to collectors. Since this program started in 1980, it has raised about $250,000 for Oxfam Canada.