What is the "Stamp Rain" Project?

In this month's edition of Stamp Collector, I read about something new - The Stamp Rain Project.

Michael Burzan, who is a regular contributor to the magazine, wrote about his project "which aims to encourage children into the world of stamp collecting". The editorial also mentioned Stamp Active as members of this "movement", StampIT (the youth section of Scottish Philatelic Societies) and the Postal Museum, which is facilitating school visits. The same editorial also mentioned that the Royal Philatelic Society offers associate membership for those aged 14 and over, which is good to know but not much use to me at the moment. Michael's article, in which he explains his vision in detail, is definitely interesting. He describes how he wrote his first philatelic article at the age of 14 and why he thinks it is now "time to give back".

Michael says: "We have been hearing for many years: 'Children and young people are no longer interested in stamps.' But isn't it also partly because they have less and less contact with stamps and are unable to develop an interest in them on their own?" I think this is absolutely the right question to ask. I think the reason I am interested in stamps is because other family members were collectors and I found what they were doing interesting. I didn't just see bits of coloured paper but little pieces of history.

Without those people passing on their knowledge and enthusiasm, would I have ever been interested in stamps? Maybe not.

Michael gets this, because he says: "I am convinced that stamps are inherently appealing, as soon as you have several different examples and can compare [them]. And when one child starts collecting, another may develop an interest through their example. Who remembers how their own collection started?"

But what is most interesting is what he plans to do about it. The name of the project comes from his motto - "Let it rain stamps!"

He wants to encourage "future generations of collectors and philatelists by providing children with free stamps on as large a scale as possible". That sounds really good to me, especially when the latest issue from Royal Mail will set me back £13.75 plus postage. Sometimes stamp collecting is seen as if it is for people who have lots of money to spend and Michael doesn't want to see the cost of buying stamps as a barrier. It's makes perfect sense, because if you develop an interest when someone is young they will take it into adult life and that's when they spend money (my dad says this, so it must be true).

Michael wants to:

a) encourage stamp dealers to "rescue" some of their "commercially valueless stock" from its "pointless existence" and "put it to better use" by using it to support a stamp collecting campaign.

b) work with schools to provide opportunities for young children to learn about stamps and engage with them. He describes a visit to a kindergarten where he engaged with children aged 6 to 8 who were learning about letter writing. At the end he gave out packs of stamps and "all of them were interested, happy and motivated - disproving the claim that young people are no longer interested in stamps".

c) work with third parties to "turn this into a major international campaign involving the entire philatelic community". Already things are going well with the FSPL in Luxembourg preparing a project based on this vision. At the end of the article, Michael asks "who wants to join us?" Well, I very definitely want to be involved, although - as a 13 year old - it would mainly be to help spread the word. I would hope many of my readers would support the Stamp Rain Project's aim to reach as many young people as possible and encourage them to get involved in this fantastic hobby - if that sounds like something you might want to do, get in touch with Stamp Collector .

It was a really good article and I enjoyed reading it. The only thing missing was the voice of a young person to explain why they like the project. This is a great idea but it will only be successful if it gives children and young people the chance to talk for themselves instead of just doing things for us. Perhaps when The Stamp Rain Project has become more established there will be many young people wanting to talk about how brilliant it is!

Update (24.9.25): I have been in touch with Michael Burzan. He said: "As I told the children in my sisters' kindergarten where I started the project: 'Stamp Collecting is like Christmas every week, you always discover something nice and interesting, and get free stamps from all sides'

He also shared with me the full original article (below), which appeared in The Philatelic Journalist of the AIJP, and is in both German and English. There's a lot more detail in this than the article that appeared in Stamp Collector, and it is worth re4ading to get a greater sense of what the Stamp Rain project is.

2025-AIJP-Stamp-Rain-1-A.pdf

Download PDF • 4.40MB

He also added some further notes: The first realisation of a 'Stamp Rain' took place as a test last Friday in a school with 27 children, 1,5 hours before the opening of National Stamp Show NAPOSTA in Remseck, Germany. A larger-scale implementation is planned at the International Stamp Fair in Ulm, Germany, end of October, accompanied by a postal special cancellation (below - isn't it brilliant?). The new FSPL president Lars Böttger told us they will cooperate with Luxembourg Post to realise a similar project end of 2025.

Most of the stamps were on paper, so 'philatelists' were not angry that most of them fell on the floor before the kids could pick them up (what they did carefully). The teachers' idea to catch stamps with plastic cups did not work well, some kids tried their luck with clothes spread out.

For the next Stamp Rain in Ulm we will try to spread the stamps with a leaf blower (1st test positive), because there is no gallery from which to throw them.

Michael's nephew, Christian Smyrek, designed a postcard inspired by the Stamp Rain project that was the runner up in this year's Stampex Postcard competition (below).