Saskatchewan village flooded with Love letters
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 | 10:59 AM CT
CBC News
If you want to send a Valentine's Day card with a unique postmark, all you need is Love, Sask.
Throughout the year, love letters by the thousands are delivered to the village of 80 people, about 225 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.
About 80 people live in Love, Sask.
(CBC)
But around Feb. 14, the steady flow turns into an avalanche.
People from all over the world send valentine cards to the village so the postmaster can stamp them with its special postmark — a teddy bear holding a heart, surrounded by the name Love. The mail is then sent to its final destination.
Former Love postmaster Pauline McKinnon and her husband came up with the idea of the teddy bear design.
Love is all around in the village 225 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.
(CBC)
"My husband was born and raised in Love and we were trying to promote our small village," she said. "We had piles of letters coming in that they wanted a special postmark from Love. So, we thought it would be something to get the town on the map and it worked."
However, no other village in Canada had an individualized postmark and it took five years to persuade Canada Post to approve it, McKinnon said. Eventually, love found a way.
In the first year, more than 10,000 letters came through Love's post office from as far away as Germany.
Every year since, the letters have continued to pour in.
"I get them from all over Canada, Quebec, Ontario," said Joanne Munroe, Love's current postmaster, "Then I've had some from the Netherlands, Australia and Japan."
The mail doesn't end after Feb. 14. In the summer, Love's postmaster is inundated with wedding invitations from all over the world.
