Today’s spotlight comes from Evanscrew, a family of four from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They like hiking and have an unusual hobby called Letterboxing. Intrigued? Find out all about it on this week’s spotlight!
- How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?
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We are a family of four and I love finding activities that are fun for us all, but also activities that we can both learn from and give back to. We participate in a hobby called Letterboxing (see next question) and there is a discussion board on one of the websites for that hobby that is all about Postcrossing. That is how I learned of Postcrossing.
What got me hooked was how educational it is—not only do we receive interesting postcards, but we also enjoy the great notes that most postcrossers include on the cards. I share the cards with my children, we put a pin in our world map if the card comes from a new place, and we learn about the place on the card. - Do you have any other interesting hobbies?
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We love to read, go hiking and biking, and explore new places. One of the best hobbies we have found that combines many of our loves is called Letterboxing. Clues may be found on the internet that lead you to plastic boxes containing a rubber stamp (often hand-carved) and a logbook. As letterboxers, we carry a logbook and family stamp representing our trail name. When we find a box, we stamp our stamp into the box’s logbook and the box’s stamp into our logbook then carefully close and rehide the box for its next finders. We love to find and also plant these boxes. It is very important to be careful when letterboxing—both to maintain the natural elements around the boxes as well as to keep the letterboxes themselves safe. People intending to try this hobby should read up on the generally accepted etiquette for finding boxes and teach their children (if there are any) as well!
- Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!
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This is the Main Post Office in Falmouth. There are several smaller post offices in Falmouth that we sometimes use as well. Several postal employees automatically take out the stamp for hand-cancelling the cards when they see me coming!
- Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.
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We love all of our cards!! We are active in the forum as well, and love seeing what people choose for us!
This is of the World Map we have hanging in our home where the children put pins to mark where our postcards come from.
- What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?
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Honestly, it gives me a thrill to choose cards and stamps that I think a person will enjoy based on their profiles. And what fun—that is all we know about that person—what is in the profile—yet for a moment in time we are connected to someone in another part of the world as we prepare the card, knowing it will travel a great distance and hopefully bring a smile! Receiving cards that have obviously been chosen based on our interests is a thrill as well—that someone we don’t know in a place we may never visit has taken time to think of us—how cool is that!
25 comments so far
I fully agree with the answer given to 'what is your favourite part of the Postcrossing process?' I love it when I receive the 'perfect' card and I love being able to chose the 'perfect' card to send to someone all the time hoping that my chocie of 'perfect' card is also the receiver's 'perfect' choice for him or herself. Continued Happy Postcrossing to all.
I've swapped with evanscrew :-D Think that's my favourite part of Postcrossing too, I love finding something that will, hopefully, brighten up someone's day! I've been meaning to set up a world map like that for ages but don't know where I would put it!
I knew Evanscrew from letterboxing first. It's cool to see someone I 'know' in the spotlight. :)
It's great to see another Massachusetts crew here! :) We're so close by - we need to meet in person someday!
Congratulations on the interview, I enjoyed reading it! It's always great to see someone I know from the forum in the spotlight! :)
Hi Evanscrew, nice to see you here! I remember I had sent you a card once, and was so happy about the interest you took in my card and place :) . Oh and: supercool map!
I really like that idea with the map ;-) Nice to see you here in the spotlight!
I really love that huge wall-map idea! I keep small 8.5x11 maps of the world and US states, but they're a bit small for marking dots or pins. Maybe someday I'll get a huge map and do this! :)
Excellent interview! :)
I'm trying to get my 7 year old grandson to be interested in these postcards that I get from all over the wold. When I was his age it was collecting stamps from everywhere but in this day and time I'll need to get him away from his games first. I think I can, I think I can. :-)
Put up the map and he will come.
nice to see you on here Evanscrew! Love your map!
Dear Kerri and the Crews, so nice to see you on spotlight! I agree that Postcrossing is fun and educational. See you soon ;)
Hugs!
WOw! I do love that map!
Hooray for letterboxing! I was a letterboxer that lead to geocaching that led to postcrossing.
I think the idea with the world map is really nice! I haven't got any space to imitate it, but I'll keep it in mind - and when I've got the opportunity to do it I'll put a map on my wall and pin down the places from where I received a card. ^^
So lovely to see you in the spotlight, dear EvansCrew! :)
We have a map too but we don't put pins up. Maybe we should...
Thanks for all of the nice comments and messages! It is such a fantastic hobby and we are truly greatful to be a part of such a wonderful international community! :)
Great to see you in the spotlight. :) I really like the article. :)
Wonderful profile. Letterboxing sounds a bit like geocaching (only different of course) which is my family's favourite outdoor hobby! Thanks for the article
Evanscrew, how lovely to read your spotlight! Great to see you here. I love your pins-in-the-map idea. I hope one day your map will be so covered in pushpins, you won't be able to see the map! :)
i love your idea to put pins in map :)
Alright! I do letterboxing too! :D
What a wonderful idea. I wish this was around when my kinds were young. You are very lucky.
It is so nice to learn about you and your interesting letterboxing. I've seen you on postcrossing since I joined. How nice to see you in the Spotlight.
Thanks for making me aware of letterboxing - I was amazed to find there are quite a few in Ireland too - Nice to see you in the Spotlight :)
The map is brilliant!!! :D
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