WHAT:

Special Dedication ceremony for the Celebrate Scouting 45-cent First-Class Mail® Forever® stamp. The event is free and open to the public.

WHEN:

July 24, 2012 at 3:00 pm

WHERE:

Madison Square Post Office (East Lobby)
149 East 23rd Street
New York, New York 10010

WHO:

Charmaine Chung, Vice President Girl Scouts ofGreater New York, Incorporated
Barbara Murphy-Warrington, Chief Executive Officer
Rhonda Boston lifetime member of Girl Scouts and Managing Council Member at Large
Raschelle Parker, USPS Manager Marketing and Executive Member Girl Scouts of Greater New    
York

BACKGROUND:

The U.S. Postal Service® honors the Girl Scouts by issuing the Celebrate Scouting stamp to coin­cide with the Girl Scouts of America’s 100th anniversary.  Attending will be several Girl Scout Troops and Cadets including members of: Junior Troops 2711, Junior Troop 2379, Cadette Troop 6217

“The New York District Madison Square Station Post Office is proud to celebrate Girl Scouting’s role for girls for more than 100 years,” said Raschelle Parker, Manager Marketing for the USPS NY District. “Scouting builds confidence and self reliance and develops tomorrow’s leaders. We are dedicating the stamps on July 24th to raise awareness of this fine institution by dedicating the Celebrate Scouting stamp.”

Celebrate Scouting, the “sister” stamp to the 2010 Scouting stamp, pays tribute to scouting organizations for the opportunities and pleasures they have provided millions of youths worldwide. The stamp features a large silhouette of a girl with binoculars looking into the distance. A scene within the silhouette features a scout in mid-stride on a serious summer trek, in an environment composed of large redwoods, a lake and a distant forested mountainside. Working with art director Derry Noyes of Washington, DC, illustrator Craig Frazier of Mill Valley, CA, created the stamp art.

Among the first advocates for a sister scouting movement were the girls who demanded inclusion in the Crystal Palace Boy Scout Rally, the first rally of its kind, held in London, England, in 1909. A year later, Boy Scout pioneer Robert Baden-Powell and his sister Agnes Baden-Powell helped organize a scouting group for girls, The Girl Guides Association. Together they adapted his guidebook Scouting for Boys, and in 1912 they published the first official girl scouting manual.

In the U.S., the scouting movement for both boys and girls began about a century ago. Since that time, mil­lions of youths have learned to find their way in the world with the skills and confidence they acquired through scouting.

The Madison Square Station United States Post Office is a historic post office building located at 149 East 23rd Street between Lexington Avenue and Third Avenue in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. In spite of the building's name, it is not located on Madison Square but about five blocks east (approximately 1/4 mile) along 23rd Street. The building runs through the block to East 24th Street that offers public entrance.

The building was constructed in 1937 with the exterior featuring five bronze relief sculptures by artists Edmond Amateis and Louis Slobodkin illustrating different forms of communication: from west to east, the god Mercury, jungle drums, mail, carrier pigeon, and smoke signals. The interior features eight murals executed between 1937 and 1939 by artist Kindred McLeary.[3]

The Madison Square Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.