Fayetteville Postmaster Dean Fields, Delta Sigma Theta’s Fort Bragg Chapter President Sandra Collins and Ebony Editor-in-Chief Amy Dubois Barnett present John H. Johnson Black Heritage Stamp to guests at recent Big Hat Brunch.
FAYETTEVILLE, NC — During a recent event at Cumberland County’s Crown Coliseum, Fayetteville Postmaster Dean Fields greeted a room “brimming” with energy and filled with ladies in hats!
As part of the Big Hat Brunch, hosted by Delta Sigma Theta’s Fort Bragg Area Alumnae Chapter, Editor-in-Chief of Ebony Magazine Amy Dubois Barnett had already shared how education afforded her opportunities to work for several popular magazines.
When Fields addressed the audience, he expressed his appreciation for those magazines and the joy postal customers experience when they receive the publications in their mailboxes. Nearly everyone in attendance nodded in agreement when Fields said, “Despite the technological advances we’ve made, nothing beats holding a magazine in your hand and turning those pages.” Fields said postal customers everywhere have a “mail moment” where they decide what piece of mail gets read first. “For nearly seven decades, Ebony and Jet magazines have been part of those mail moments,” the Postmaster said.
Fields, who acknowledged that he felt “out of place” without a hat, was at the event to dedicate the John H. Johnson Forever Stamp. The Johnson Stamp is the Postal Service’s 2012 Black Heritage Stamp, making the legendary publisher the 35th honoree in the Black Heritage Series.
Fields, who is responsible for postal delivery and retail operations in Fayetteville and Fort Bragg, invited Barnett and Fort Bragg chapter President Sandra Collins to join him as they presented an enlargement of the stamp to resounding applause from the nearly 400 guests. Attendees said they were excited to purchase the stamp sheets, and many took turns taking pictures with the stamp enlargement after the event. “This is marvelous,” said one guest. “I didn’t know the Post Office did things like this in Fayetteville. And to have the magazine’s editor here for the event makes it exceptional.”
Fields also presented Barnett with a commemorative keepsake of the Johnson stamp on behalf of the Fayetteville Post Office.
The Johnson stamp is on sale now at local Post Offices. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce rate. At the time of issuance, the John H. Johnson stamps are being sold at a price of 45 cents each, or $9 a sheet.
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
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A list of processing facilities studied, FAQs, mail processing b-roll, and additional information can be found at usps.com/ourfuturenetwork.
A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With nearly 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service was ranked number one in overall service performance, out of the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world, Oxford Strategic Consulting. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
