600 Students at Carr Give Their Stamp of Approval

About 600 students gathered at Carr Intermediate School on Tuesday for the unveiling of a new 32-cent postage stamp on the theme “Helping Children Learn.”

Carr was one of 100 sites nationwide and the only one in Orange County that took part in the commemoration. The school was chosen because it has an educational partnership with the local post office.

The stamp, designed by children’s book artist Christopher Van Allsburg, depicts a man with his arm around a child as they read together.

Its purpose is to promote one of the U.S. Postal Service’s causes: literacy. Tuesday’s release of the stamp coincided with the 100th anniversary of the national PTA.

“If people were not literate,” postal service spokeswoman Terri Bouffiou said, “we would not exist.”

The postal service also took the step of calling for a commemorative cancellation, which is the imprint on a stamp showing that it has passed through the post office.

The postal service asked Carr students to come up with a cancellation design and, from 142 entries, chose one by eighth-grader Diana Alvarez.

Alvarez’s entry shows a child studying from a math book. A teacher is by her side, and a chalkboard with addition problems is in the background.

For a couple of hours Tuesday, postal service employees canceled letters with Alvarez’s design in the Carr library following Tuesday’s presentation.

Newly elected Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) also spoke at Tuesday’s ceremony. She urged children, especially those born to immigrants, to study hard and pursue their dreams.

“Learn,” Sanchez told them. “Learn as much as you can, every single day.”