The Penticton and District Stamp Club is commemorating a historic event Monday with the unveiling of a special commemorative picture postage stamp and cover (envelope).
The official Pictorial Day of Opening Canada Post Cancel for April 29, 2019 celebrates the opening of the multi-million-dollar David E. Kampe Tower at Penticton Regional Hospital.
The unveiling of the cover and Canada Post cancelled stamp, will take place at 2 p.m. on the tower’s main floor by the Trinkets & Treasures Gift Shop.
The cover features a colour photo of the new tower by photographer Stuart Bish, along with black and white photos of previous hospitals from 1908, the Hancock House Hospital, 1915, the Haven Hill Hospital and 1953, the current Penticton Regional Hospital. The historic photos were provided by the Penticton Museum and Archives.
The cover design was done by Gary McDougall.
What has not been revealed by stamp club officials is just exactly who or what the picture on the stamp is.
It is hoped that David Kampe, McDougall and Sigrid Boersma will be at the unveiling. Kampe is the major donor for the hospital expansion project.
Sigrid is the wife of the late Gus Boersma, founder and former president of the stamp club who lobbied its members to fundraise through the turning of donated stamps with the goal of $30,000.
That amount, and more, was raised and now patient care room 423 now bears the name of the Penticton and District Stamp Club.
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The club reached its goal in 2017, but continues raising money for the South Okanagan Similkameen Foundation and other charities.
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Other events the organization has recognized in similar ways included Steamfest in 2014 and 2015, the 125th anniversary of St. Saviour’s Anglican Church in 2017 and the 2018 final Greyhound Bus arrival and departure in Penticton.
“The road to having this cover and stamp produced has been challenging at times, but many have helped to make it a success. Gus, I kept my promise to push forward on this project. Rest easy now — we did it,” wrote Harv Baessler, club member and project co-ordinator.
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