You’ve Got Mail: Loveland, Colorado, Gets Ready For Valentine’s Day

Love is in the air — and the mail. Post office workers and volunteers are getting ready to take on the 69th Annual Loveland, Colorado, Valentine’s Day re-mailing program.

If you’re planning on sending that special someone a valentine this year, add a little extra love by having your card stamped with the City of Loveland’s romantic postmark. Every year, people from around the globe send pre-addressed and pre-stamped valentines to Loveland in order to obtain the postmark. The mail is then forwarded to its intended destination.

What does it take to make this happen? Volunteers, of course. Volunteer cupids will start stamping cards on February 2. As a special additional touch, the envelopes will also be stamped with this year’s poem or “cachet,” featuring an image of the western-style Dan Cupid.

Youth artist 11-year-old Phoebe Henkle designed this year’s cancellation stamp. On Tuesday morning, Mindy McCloughan, president of the Loveland Chamber of Commerce, introduced her and the rest of the card and cachet designers.

Phoebe is the first new person in several years to win the cancellation stamp design. When asked by a member of the Loveland Reporter-Herald, she had this to say of why she wanted to enter the contest.

“Well, my dad thought I should.”

She explained that she loves to draw Colorado scenes, especially the mountains. Her drawing will be an addition to the simple stamp design.

Corry McDowell won the cachet design. She has been the winner for a total of 11 years in a row. This year, her design was also selected as the official Loveland Valentine.

As reported by KMGH, McDowell said the following about her love for Valentine’s Day.

“I love Loveland and I love Valentine’s Day. In fact I came from the Netherlands when I was 2 1/2 years old, and we landed in New York harbor on Valentine’s Day — February 1953.”

The cachet stamp includes a decorative design and verse. First-timer Susan Burton is this year’s cachet verse winner.

The cachet stamp is what makes the re-mailed valentines extra special.

Loveland’s Valentine Re-mailing Program began in January 1947 by Ted Thompson and Elmer Ivers, the Loveland postmaster. Ivers received about 30 valentines from individuals requesting to have the cards postmarked from Loveland for a bit of a romantic touch. Thompson designed a cachet with the message, “A Valentine Greeting from Sweetheart Town, Loveland, Colorado,” and the image was a heart pierced by an arrow over the Rocky Mountains.

Don’t delay! If you want this extra touch to show your valentine that you love them to moon and back, U.S. mail must be in Loveland by February 6 in order to arrive in time for Valentine’s Day. The deadline for foreign mail is February 3.

Send your valentines to the following address.

Postmaster – Attention Valentines
446 E. 29th St.
Loveland, CO 80538-9998

For more information on the re-mailing program, go to the Loveland website.

Colorado residents can drop off their valentines at any King Soopers/City Market location by February 8.

Need some more ideas for Valentines’s Day? Click here.

[Images: KMGH and Reporter-Herald]