I get to send mail all over these good United States {and abroad}, and, in doing so, I notice some pretty interesting place names: Surprise, AZ; King of Prussia, PA; Dinosaur, CO. Some of these places know how to make having a quirky town name work for them.
Take Loveland, Colorado for example. According to the press release from the U.S.P.S., this will be Loveland's 64th year participating in the Loveland Valentine Postmark Re-mailing program. Basically, you send your valentine to them, they'll postmark it with a super-special, valentine-y postmark and then mail it on its way to the intended recipient. Approximately 200,000 valentine cards/letters are handled by Loveland each year, from 100+ countries and all 50 states. More than 12 million valentines have been re-mailed since the program started in 1947.
I found the press release a little lacking when it didn't mention any of the other valentine remailing programs around the country. Why, there's Valentine, TX; there's Romance, AR; Romeo, MI & Juliette, GA have a shared postmark, and others! Why is Loveland {pardon the pun} get all the love? If you want to send your valentines through any of these re-mailers, you need to do it soon. The deadline suggested is Feb. 4, 2010.
Loveland address:
Postmaster, Valentine Re-mailing, 446 E. 29th St., CO 80538
Romance address:
Postmaster Romance, AR, Re-mailing, Romance, AR 72136
Valentine address:
Postmaster, Valentine, TX 79854
Romeo/Juliette addresses:
Postmaster, Romeo MI Valentine Remailing, Romeo, MI, 48065
Postmaster, Juliette GA Valentine Remailing, Juliette GA 31046
{image from jayinvienna}
It does mention the other towns and some more that you don't have listed. The suggested date in you live in the US is Feb 9th not 4th.
Posted by: Alan | February 01, 2010 at 01:50 PM
I listed the 4th because we are an international organization. And, you're right that they mention the names, but they don't give the postmaster information. I just felt everyone could use some love!
Posted by: Donovan | February 01, 2010 at 02:49 PM
Forgot to mention thanks. I think i will give this a try this year thanks alot for listing this!
Posted by: Alan | February 01, 2010 at 03:38 PM
Cool! I wonder if I can convince my partner to mail my Valentine to me (even though we live together...)
Posted by: Ashley B | February 01, 2010 at 08:02 PM
So I guess you put all your Valentines in one envelope and mail to the postmaster? Of course, you'd have to put the stamps on first. Interesting idea. I like it!
Posted by: Beth | February 02, 2010 at 05:56 AM
If you look under local news and click on Florida, there is an article "Love is in the Air..." which lists tons of tons that have love-themed names. Also, check out the article,"Rediscover the Quiet Delight of Letters." It is interesting endorsement of letter-writing.
Posted by: Lisa | February 02, 2010 at 02:05 PM
I meant to write "tons of towns" not tons of tons!
Posted by: Lisa | February 02, 2010 at 02:07 PM
In the USPS press release from 2009 they state that the commonwealth of Virginia has designated every February 14th as "Valentines, Virginia Day" so I guess they're participating in the remailing! There's also Valentine, TX where they've been participating since 1983.
Can you have something postmarked and then send it at a later date? Because I would get a bunch of envelopes postmarked if I could! Do you have to send one stamped envelope per outer envelope or could I put a bunch of stamped envelopes in one bigger outer envelope?
Posted by: Court | February 02, 2010 at 03:59 PM
In answer to your first question, no, I don't think so because they are re-mailing them for you from there. For your second question, I would think that would be fine as long as you put the right amount of postage on the large outer envelope. I designate you as our research person. Let me know if you try it out!
Posted by: Donovan | February 03, 2010 at 08:06 AM
Donovan, I'm on the case! After doing a little research, I found that a person can go to the P.O. and "hand cancel" her letters in order to get the special postmarks. With "tons of towns" with romantic names-- hopefully--there will be a town in the vicinity of some of the letter-writers out there interested in the special postmarks. I would definitely call the P.O. first because it seems some only offer these special postmarks from Valentine's through the wedding season.
As for my other question, I'll probably send two letters in one envelope and see how that goes. I'll let you know my results.
Posted by: Court | February 03, 2010 at 09:23 PM
Last year, I send about 6-7 stamped cards in one big envelope to Valentine, TX. I think I mailed them on the 5th of February. They all made it in time with a wonderful postmark just like the one in your picture. This year I am trying Loving, TX to see what their postmark looks like.
Posted by: Lisa | February 04, 2010 at 10:22 AM
This is so neat! I have never heard of it, I think I am going send some to Valentine, TX. Can't wait to find out of they make it.
Posted by: Estela | February 04, 2010 at 08:12 PM
are there any other remailing programs that you know of that aren't love related? I think they used to have one for Hell but I'm not finding the specific info
Posted by: DK | January 09, 2015 at 07:40 AM
It seems you are fully investigating the blog on this. As far as I know, you can send your mail anywhere in the US, attention the Postmaster, for re-mailing.
Letter Writers Alliance | 16 Sparrows
www.letterwriters.org | www.16sparrows.com
Write more letters. | sarcasm folded in half
Posted by: Kathy Zadrozny | January 09, 2015 at 08:51 AM