A collector in Kelowna, B.C., has designed and issued what he believes is the first Canadian stamp thanking healthcare workers for their role in combatting COVID-19.
“One of my daughters works in the Kelowna General Hospital, so I can appreciate some of the difficulties and stress nurses and doctors are faced with every day,” said Peter Lepold, publicity chair of the Kelowna and District Stamp Club (KDSC).
Inspired by Dr. Bonnie Henry, the B.C. provincial health officer who has become “one of the most popular and respected citizens in our province,” Lepold designed a Picture Postage stamp using her mantra, “Be kind, be calm, be safe.”
KDSC President Ed Haasdyk visited Victoria earlier this week to give Henry some of the personalized stamps plus a specially designed cover “to show her our appreciation,” Lepold added.
While Canada Post has yet to join dozens of other countries in issuing an official COVID-19 stamp, the Crown corporation began applying a bilingual slogan cancel – “Personnel soignant, merci / Thanks, healthcare workers” – to all lettermail this May.