Helping A Little Girl Preserve Her Heritage

Hi. I'm a new guy on the block. I recently completed a project I'd like to share with the group because of its potential impact on the hobby.
My wife's neice recently adopted a little girl from Russia. She has reached the age of 9 and at a recent family reunion we were discussing how she has adjusted, etc. My wife's sister stated that the neice was interested in helping the girl preserve her roots. After not a lotta thought, I decided that I could contribute and have some fun doing it.
For starters I purchased a Year-set for 1999, her birth year, designed pages for the stamps with Microsoft Word, acid-free document protectors and a binder and dust case. I mounted all the stamps in mounts. I used the internet to research the subjects of the various issues and described the issue date, Scott # and significance (historical, cultural, social, etc.) of each subject on the facing pages.
The impact far exceeded my expectations. She has been showing this mini-collection to everyone that she can buttonhole and hauls it wherever she can to show it off.
This project was very enjoyable from a hobby standpoint and while it involved some investment in time and money the returns were much greater than I've gotten on many expenditures. This is a project that could be easily repeated and has tremendous marketing potential for the hobby.

Hi Cgrotha.

Welcome to the Stamp Community.
You have found out, what most of us have known for years.
Stamps can bring a lot of enjoyment to your life.

Thanks for sharing you great story.

Steve

to the SCF cgrotha!

It sounds like you put a lot of work into your little mini-project. Congratulations!

Welcome to the SCF, Cgrotha.

As one who works with you and philately, I can tell you that you have hooked the girl.

I always encourage the children to collect a country related to their ancestry. There is nothing like a kid who has a stamp collection and wants to show Grand Dad his stamps from Great Britain. Of course, Grand Dad emigrated to Canada in the 1960's, so Grand Dad takes an interest in the British stamps of the 1940's and 1950's. Ta-Da! Suddenly, Junior has an adult to is asking serious adult questions about something he is interested in.

Few children get that sort of attention from any adult.

Keep up the good work!

Tell us about your collection.

Cheers!

David

cgrotha

What a wonderful thing you have done for that little girl

Dianne

Welcome to the forum. That is a great way to share the hobby in a meaningful way. It seems like it may stick and be cherished for years to come. Congrats!

Welcome to the forum!
Thanks for sharing a great story!
Gussyboy1

Hi it sounds like a nice project. I was stunned by your vast collection of stamps. That ranks you up among the other massive collections on this site. Well done.

It is great to gets kid involved. I have one suggestion that I learned when getting my daughter involved in stamps. Let them put together the next project. Let them handle and mount the stamps, even it they don't do the best job.

My daughter became much more interested when she got to handle the stamps, then they became hers. When I did it for her it was still dad's.

I hope you can make her a collector just as I have done with my daughter. It is great to see kids interested in stamps.

I would agree whole-heartedly with the idea that they can better take ownership by actually handling the stamps themselves and would do that if I could/can have the child at hand but we are so often separated by the miles and their parents don't know enough or have the interest to get involved. I often just like to plant the seed and often the one to reap the benefits is a third party who is inspired by seeing the 'collection' and the infection spreads.

I did a similar sort of starter collection for a child who was a train nut whose interest grew because of being able to physically collect many more trains on stamps than he could physically acquire. Also he was fascinated by the fact that I had included in his gift old RR stock certificates that I got in an auction lot.

Trains my second love. However a much more expensive love. You will convert her just send her some stamps to play around with even if the folks have no interest. You sound like a cool great uncle.

Welcome cgrotha,here is a good forum for philately,I am a new recruit too,I believe you will enjoy oneself so much as to forget to go home at here.

Good job... But I don't think it was a little project! You're pretty special and she and we know it...Welcome