Philanthropic Philatelists Raise Money for RNIB

Enthusiastic stamp collectors, together with those who receive plenty of post, have been contributing to fundraising efforts by School House since the Autumn Term, in support of the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB).

At the suggestion of Upper Sixth student, Finlay, the members of School House voted to support the RNIB’s initiative to collect stamps for recycling to make a difference to blind and partially sighted people. Finlay explains, “What appealed to me about RNIB, was my own fear. I expressed that I have always been afraid of going blind and many others had agreed with me. This led to always want to support blind people as I can only imagine how hard it is for them. I picked the stamp collection as a fund raiser because I believe it is a fun and easy task that everyone can get involved in. It feels to me that you as carrying out a task instead of handing out money, which to me is more respectful. So far, we have collected many stamps. I believe it is going very well. I want everyone to get involved as it is a simple task that can have extraordinary benefits to those less fortunate than ourselves.”

One very kind donor, a family friend of Felicity (Year 11), has given his life’s collection of beautiful stamps to the school in generous support of this good cause. Sharon Harpin, House Manager for School House, was astonished when she opened the parcel! “When I opened the box, I could not believe it, there were so many,  It was like opening a little box of treasure in stamps.  I was very humbled to receive them towards our chosen charity.”

Sharon has supported the students’ aims by ordering stamp collection boxes and posters which have been made available in the Library and the boarding Houses for students to drop stamps off. Once the 2kg collection boxes are filled their contents can be collated and shared with the RNIB via their return envelopes. The collected stamps are initially sorted into British and Overseas stamps and can include anything from new or used current designs to family albums created by dedicated philatelists. The stamps are sold by weight to a partner called Xchange Master and the RNIB receives £20 per kilogramme. Xchange Master sort the donations into individual countries and sell them on to stamp collectors and resellers. According to the RNIB website, “A small portion is also sold on to artists who make huge canvas pictures using different coloured stamps as pixels. Many of these works can be worth a lot of money but require the use of thousands of stamps to make the picture in the first place. A tiny fraction is also sold on to foreign buyers as GB stamps are still by far the most desirable as they were the first to produce stamps.”

The money raised from RNIB’s stamp purchaser, Xchange Master, can be used by the RNIB in a range of ways. For example:

• £5 could help the RNIB to be there for a blind or partially sighted person when they contact the charity’s helpline.
• £10 could cover the cost of 100 blind and partially sighted people tuning into RNIB Connect Radio, run by and for people with sight loss to promote independence and reduce social isolation.
• £15 could provide free Talking Books to someone for a month, so that they can relax with a great read.
• £20 could help someone feel more confident about living with sight loss, with personalised support on a topic like reading, technology or their eye condition from the RNIB’s expert advice service.