Breast Cancer Research Stamp
The breast cancer research stamp (BCRS) is a semi-postal non-denominated postage stamp issued by the United States Postal Service, priced in 2011 as eleven cents higher than the standard first-class letter rate. The surplus above the price of the first-class stamp is collected by the United States Postal Service (USPS) and allocated to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DoD) for breast cancer research. If a person used this stamp exclusively, and mailed one letter per day for a year, the resulting donation would amount to US $40.
Originally created in 1997, Congress has reauthorized the Breast Cancer Research Stamp several times. The original sponsors for the bill were United States Senators Feinstein (D-CA), Alfonse D’Amato (R-NY), and Lauch Faircloth (R-NC), and United States Representatives Vic Fazio (D-CA) and Susan Molinari (R-NY). Breast cancer survivor and advocate, Betsy Mullen, breast cancer surgeon, Ernie Bodai and breast cancer advocate David Goodman who lost his first wife to breast cancer, spearheaded the grassroots advocacy efforts in partnership with Senator Feinstein and her colleagues that led to the creation and issuance of this historic stamp designed to save lives.
The hugely successful Breast Cancer Research Stamp is an example of conscientious consumption in cause marketing, in which a person substitutes buying and consuming along with a tiny donation, for making a more significant donation.
Read more about Breast Cancer Research Stamp: History and Description, Programs Supported, Timeline, Program Accomplishments and Outcomes, Sales
Famous quotes containing the words breast, cancer, research and/or stamp:
“When the cross blue lightning seemed to open
The breast of heaven, I did present myself
Even in the aim and very flash of it.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Ever since I was a kid my folks fed me bigotry for breakfast and ignorance for supper. Never, not once did they ever make me feel proud of where I was born. That’s it. That was a cancer they put in me. No knowledge of my country. No pride. Just a hymn of hate.”
—Samuel Fuller (b. 1911)
“I did my research and decided I just had to live it.”
—Karina O’Malley, U.S. sociologist and educator. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A5 (September 16, 1992)
“If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her!
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her mother’s pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)