Love in the mail: Colorado remailing program celebrates 80 years

LOVELAND, Colo. (CN) — No one really knows who first thought up the idea to send a lovebird letter through Loveland just to get their mail stamped here.

By Valentine's Day in 1946, postmaster Elmer Ivers and members of the Loveland Stamp Club had noticed the trend. People were mailing letters to the Loveland post office, eager to get their postage voided with the word “Loveland.”

Hoping to see the idea take off, Ivers recruited local movie theater owner Ted Thompson for marketing help the following year. Thompson gave the program some TLC, pitching the “Loveland” cancellation stamp not just as a stamp-collection oddity but as the perfect addition to a valentine.

“He had a great niche for marketing, and he shifted it to the sweetheart angle,” Mindy McCloughan, CEO and president of the Loveland Chamber of Commerce, explained. Donning a festive red sweater, McCloughan brought volunteers trays of letters in the decorated meeting room where stamping officially began on Feb. 2.

These days, the Loveland Valentine Remailing Program has grown into a veritable tradition, voiding thousands of letters for people around the world.

Envelopes sent here get two holiday-themed stamps: a special cancellation from the U.S. Postal Service and another unique marking from the Loveland Chamber of Commerce. This year’s official Chamber of Commerce stamp portrays local icon Cowboy Cupid, along with his heart-shaped branding iron and a freshly marked tree. 

Next comes the official cancellation stamp from the mail service. Amid the festivities, Loveland Postmaster Chad Daniel assured Courthouse News that no unwanted mail tampering takes place. A mail clerk is always present to oversee use of the official cancellation stamps, which are counted and locked up at the end of each day.

For two weeks each February, hundreds of locals sign up to help void the Valentine’s postage. There are 300 volunteers this year, and the waitlist is yearslong.

As troubles abound in the world, McCloughan says the simple holiday tradition proves that people still look out for each other.

“At this time in society, we need love more than anything,” McCloughan said.

The tradition has helped cement Loveland’s nickname as “the Sweetheart City.” A Miss Loveland Valentine is crowned each year, tasked with helping to void envelopes and spread word about the tradition. She also has the honors of sending the city’s first official valentine.

This year’s heart-bejeweled crown went to Ellory Anne Bauersfeld, 18. Her letter was addressed to her best friend Leni in Konstanz, Germany.

“This one is a little extra special for me,” Bauersfeld said as silver and scarlet confetti rained down during the opening ceremony. She wore a candy apple red dress and a satin sash embroidered with her title.

In her first few minutes on the job, Bauersfeld stamped letters bound for Germany, England, Israel and Australia.

That checked off four of the 110 nations from which Loveland has received letters in the past. This year’s official count won’t be known until later this month.

Her small stack of pink, white and red envelopes represented just the first of around 100,000 pieces of mail that will pass through the small city this February. With a smile as bright as the jewels in her crown, she beamed as she bestowed each envelope with her hometown’s special seal.

Getting a valentine “feels like you're just opening this little pocket of love,” Bauersfeld said. “That somebody took the time to handwrite this letter and to send it to you [and] to think of you, it's a labor of love.”

Incorporated in 1881 and named for railroad baron William A. H. Loveland, it would be decades before this city of around 80,000 embraced the Valentine wordplay on its name. 

Although its Valentine Remailing Program has a strong brand, it’s not the only punny town to lean into the holiday spirit with mail-voiding. Similar traditions are also observed each year in Valentine, Texas; Romeo, Michigan; and Juliette, Georgia.

As February arrives in Loveland, volunteers work around the clock stamping mail addressed to every corner of the globe. Sometimes, they even donate stamps to those with inadequate postage.

The letters are addressed to romantic partners, friends, family and even loved ones who have passed away. McCloughan says the undeliverable letters are among her favorites.

“The sweetest ones are the ones where it comes through, and it says their name and to send it on to my daddy in heaven,” she said.

Each small stamp has a ripple effect of positivity, not just for the letter senders and receivers but for the volunteers themselves.

“With the protests, politics and all this stuff, people are so angry,” 91-year-old Joyce Boston said, sporting an official Sweetheart City T-shirt. “I think if we can spread a little more love, maybe it'll catch on.”

Boston started stamping letters in 1997 with her late husband Tom. They married in 1953 after meeting when she spotted him in a green pickup truck and whistled on a whim. 

He drove back around, and the rest is history. For years after he told people, “‘I didn’t know if she was drunk or crazy, and I’m still trying to figure it out,’” Boston recalled with a laugh.

“We were married, for better or worse,” Boston said. “’Til death do us part.”

With decades of experience as a volunteer, Boston is sometimes asked for help handling the difficult letters: envelopes that are too small for the requisite stamps, or too bulky, or else covered inch-to-inch with ink-proof laminate stickers.

Seated beside Boston was her longtime friend, 75-year-old Jeanne Perrine, who moonlights as Mrs. Claus in December. She worked with silent focus as she used a penknife to surgically remove a heart-shaped sticker to make room for Loveland stamps. 

Next came a two-inch-high stack of hand-painted postcards. The child who’d sent them had apparently gotten so tired of writing his own name that he started mispelling it. Some of the postcards were signed “from Water.”

“Oh, Walter,” Perrine sighed. “How sweet.”

Though Valentine’s Day comes just once a year, the Museum of Loveland keeps cards on display during the off-season. 

Due to the city’s association with the Valentine’s Day holiday, curator Jennifer Cousino receives not just Loveland cards but donations from families’ personal collections of antique valentines. One cardboard crate at the museum held a century’s worth of salutations, dating back to the mid-1800s when exchanging Valentine’s gifts and cards first became popular.

From lace-adorned cupids to handmade hearts and doe-eyed puppies, the pictures on the cards have changed over the years.  Still, Cousino said their message is timeless. “People are always looking for different and unique ways to show someone they care about them,” she said — for example, with special cancellation stamps from Loveland.

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