Philippine philately boosted by Canadians

By Jesse Robitaille

With a bit of help from Canadian club leaders, youth philately in the Philippines has flourished in recent years.

The more than 60 members of the Peace Arch Stamp Club, based in Surrey, B.C., have provided a young Filipino collector with tens of thousands of stamps plus financial assistance in recent years to help him and his peers with their collecting endeavours.

“The Peace Arch Stamp Club is so pleased that we are encouraging a new generation in the Philippines to love philately,” said Terry Leishman, the Peace Arch club’s president.

Through the club’s “Youth of the World” program, 13-year-old Shawn Agsalud has received several shipments of free stamps to his home in Northern Samar, a province on the island of Samar in the Philippines, where Agsalud lives with his family.

“Our membership has sent 10,000-plus quality stamps to this young boy, and he has now started an elementary school stamp club with the permission of his school principal,” said Leishman.

With what Leishman called “a huge following,” the Jubasan Elementary School Philately Club has 84 members, who hold in-person meetings on Saturday mornings. The group also meets online “when they have electricity and when they have an interweb connection,” Leishman added.

Agsalud and four Peace Arch club executives are featured in an undergraduate senior thesis video about youth philately completed for the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

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