VALENTINE, TX – Love is in the air all year in Valentine, TX. And for a few weeks every February, Valentine’s Day greeting cards also fill the air at the Valentine Post Office.

For over 30 years, the Valentine Post Office has offered a customized pictorial postmark to add extra thoughtfulness to that special Valentine. A new postmark design is selected every year from a contest held among local Valentine students.

This year’s aspiring artist is 8th grader Arturo A. Gutierrez, III, who says he has been drawing since he was able to hold a pencil. His design depicts two deer that fell in love. His inspiration came from a pair of deer he would see when visiting his grandmother’s gravesite. The deer were always together and reminded him that humans are not the only ones who need love; animals do, too.

Hopeless romantics have been sending valentines to the Valentine Post Office for decades. Due to the post office’s remote location, most requests are received by mail from all over the country, as well as several requests each year from other countries around the world.

A mail-in request is simple.  Address the card to that special person, affix a First-Class Mail postage stamp, like the Love 2021 Forever Stamp, and put it into a larger envelope, also with appropriate postage. Address the larger envelope to:

VALENTINE’S DAY POSTMARK
POSTMASTER
311 W CALIFORNIA AVE
VALENTINE, TX 79854-9998

The Valentine, TX, Postmaster, who is a 2001 winner of the postmark design contest, will hand-cancel every valentine. As many as 12,000 valentines in one year have been received requesting this very special cancellation.

In order to make sure greeting cards receive the special postmark and are delivered in time for Valentine’s Day, requests should be sent to the address above by Feb. 5.

There is no charge to customers for requesting up to 50 Valentine, TX, pictorial postmark cancellations. Customers submitting requests for more than 50 cancellations will be charged five cents for each additional cancellation.

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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