contributed photo
Sartell Postmaster Terry Niehaus (center) and postal clerk Kaye Wenker accept an award from Dan Stark, who is a member of the postal district’s Diversity Committee. The Sartell Post Office sold the most “Breast Cancer” stamps in the postal district. Niehaus said it’s the customers who ask to buy those stamps who deserve the credit and the award. 

Once again, for the third time, the Sartell Post Office was honored for selling the most “Breast Cancer” stamps in its postal district, which includes such larger cities as Rosemount and White Bear Lake.

In the past year, the Sartell Post Office sold $1,771-worth of the stamps. The post office also won that honor in 2000 and 2001. Sartell Postmaster Terry Niehaus said those who deserve the most credit and thanks are the customers who ask to buy the “cancer” stamps when they come into the post office.

“I would like to thank all of those customers,” Niehaus said. “They’re the ones who made these awards possible.”

The “Breast Cancer” stamp is called a semi-postal stamp, meaning it costs more than the usual first-class stamp, which sells for 45 cents. A “Breast Cancer” stamp sells for 55 cents. Most of the extra 10 cents, minus administration costs, for each stamp purchased goes to two organizations – the National Institute of Health and the Medical Research Program at the U.S. Department of Defense.

Designed by Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Md., the stamp is an illustration of a mythical “goddess of the hunt” along with the phrases “Fund the Fight” and “Find a Cure.”

To date, the stamp has raised almost $75 million nationwide since its debut in 1998. It was the first semi-postal stamp in United States history.

Just last year, another semi-postal stamp was made available – one whose proceeds go to conservation efforts.