Adapted from WESTPEX – The First 50 Years by Kristin Patterson, © 2010 WESTPEX, Inc. · About this history · ↑ History overview
WESTPEX was organized for the express purpose of advancing philately through exhibitions and educational programs. Supporting youth has been a thread running through every decade — from the special junior question-and-answer session at the second show in 1961, to the Youth Champion of Champions exhibits at the 50th in 2010.
Early Programs, 1961 – 1976
Outreach to young collectors started at the second WESTPEX. Fred Thomas, a charter committee member and APS President, hosted special question-and-answer sessions for juniors and beginner collectors at the 1961 show. By 1969 there was an annual Beginners Workshop on Saturday mornings; it ran for seven years.
From 1965 the Council ran YOUTHPEX, a stamp show limited to collectors 18 and under. WESTPEX sponsored its trophy from 1967, lent it 100 frames in 1968, and for several years until YOUTHPEX wound down in 1970, gave it active support. From 1972 onward, junior stamp clubs and school stamp clubs were admitted to WESTPEX free if escorted by adults.
The Ben Franklin Wave, 1978 – 1990
1978 marked a major scaling up. Marjorie Abraham, the USPS youth coordinator, told WESTPEX that the Ben Franklin Stamp Clubs — with about 4,500 members nationwide — wanted to send 1,000 to 1,200 youngsters to the show on Friday. The committee worked out a flow: 50 children admitted between 10 a.m. and noon, another 50 in the afternoon, with one adult escort per ten kids.
The big leap came at the 25th-anniversary show in 1984 — moved to the Oakland Convention Center after the Cathedral Hill fire. With abundant space and Chairman Oliver pushing for free admission for all junior visitors, Dwain Dryden launched the first dedicated Youth Activity Booth: a junior bourse, a cachet design contest, daily drawings, and instructional sessions. The opinion at the wrap-up meeting was unanimous — a huge success.
By 1985 the booth was well established: electronic board games, a junior bourse, a junior stamp exhibit, work puzzles, daily prize drawings, and free stamps and literature. Nearly 300 kids attended that year, with six-deep lines around the booth at peak times.
To help on the bourse side, Bourse Chairman Wayne Menuz introduced a small yellow happy-face sticker dealers could attach to their booth signs to indicate they welcomed young customers. About 15 to 20 dealers participated; the kids responded.
By 1986, 400 youngsters were visiting the Youth Activities table on a single show. Five activity tables, nine dealers donating materials, and fourteen adult volunteers covered two-hour shifts. Coordinators Mel Ashley and Rupert Grey ran the program for several years; Noel Bond joined as co-chair in 1988.
The CCC Steps In, 1990
In 1990, the USPS dropped funding for the Ben Franklin Stamp Clubs in the San Francisco area. The California Collectors Club picked up the slack and took over the Youth Table. Over 300 children still came on Friday that year.
1991 brought the first junior competitive exhibition at WESTPEX. Exhibit Chair Steve Schumann set aside frames for it, with a $1-per-frame entry as a commitment marker (max five frames). The first WESTPEX Youth Grand went to Charlotte Cacheleur for “Royalty on Stamps”; WESTPEX gave her $25 toward her American Youth Stamp Exhibiting Championship entry. The youth exhibition program has continued every year since.
The Stamp Lady and the Marriott Years
1994 brought Anne Evans, the “Northern California Stamp Lady,” into the show as youth coordinator. A teacher who used stamps as a learning aid, she headed the Stories and Stamps Project and brought nine tables’ worth of games, artwork, displays, and videos for beginners of all ages. Friday became school-day, Saturday youth-day, Sunday family-day; she arranged complimentary passes for 250 children and teachers from local schools.
Evans donated her extensive philatelic collection, related materials, and 2,000 books to the California State University Sacramento Library Archives in 1995. WESTPEX donated $500 to support her display exhibit at the show. The collection — twelve cartons — is still available for research at CSUS as of 2010.
From 1999, Martin and Connie Feibusch took over coordination, and from 2000 invited Carol and Keith Edholm — Carol is the founder of Youth Stamp Collectors, a teaching program she started in Mountlake Terrace, Washington in 1993.
By 2001, the Youth Activities Area was attracting 200 to 250 youngsters to the sorting table, with school groups arriving by bus on Friday for show tours and stamp activities. WESTPEX began making annual donations to the AAPE Youth Champion of Champions — starting at $50 in 2001 and growing to $750 by 2010.
2003 added Carol Edholm’s Educators Workshop — two hours on Saturday afternoon, free to teachers, scout leaders, club organizers, and any adult working with youth. It was extended to three hours by 2005; by 2008 over 45 educators a year were visiting the Youth Activities Program.
Gary and Nancy Jensen took over Youth Area coordination in 2004 when the Feibusches received a 15-year WESTPEX Appreciation Award and stepped back. The Edholms continued as program partners.
Scouts and Awards, 2008 – 2010
2008 added the Boy Scout Stamp Collecting Merit Badge Workshop, taught by Carol Edholm with show tours by Keith — a three-hour course offered Sunday. It became an immediate fixture; in 2009 over 20 Boy Scouts from local troops took the workshop, with Assistant Scoutmaster Brian Jones from Troop 290 of San Jose explaining exhibiting to the visiting troops.
By the close of the first 50 years, the Youth Activities program was a permanent and growing fixture: a sorting table, a junior bourse, daily drawings, the Educators Workshop, the Boy Scout Merit Badge Workshop, a junior competitive exhibition, school-class visits, and a steady annual donation supporting the AAPE Youth Champion of Champions.
The next generation of philatelists has always been part of the WESTPEX story. Many of the youth exhibitors who started here later went on to win national awards as adults — and a few became accredited APS judges themselves.
The Youth Area Since 2010
The youth program has continued in the Santa Clara Room every show since the book closed. Coordination passed through several volunteers in the 2010s: Marci Jarvis — with help from a rotating cast including Frank Vignola, Brian Jones, Bill Beck, Bob Gordon, the Meehans, Heather Ivashin, and Reni Shalimoff — led the program through the 2010s and into the early 2020s. The Boy Scout Stamp Collecting Merit Badge Workshop continued every Sunday of every show, with Carol Edholm and her successors teaching.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced an unusual pivot. The youth program shifted to online Zoom merit badge classes — and at one point even stamp chess — to keep young collectors engaged when in-person shows weren’t possible. The 2022 program thanked attendees for continuing to support youth stamp collecting through volunteering and donations across that disrupted period.
From 2024 the youth team passed to a new generation: Phil Kumler, Phil Avery, Tiffany Kwok, Beatrice Trang, with newer volunteers Vee Haislip, Lisa White, and Daniel Grobani joining over the 2024 and 2025 shows. The format remains the format the Edholms and Jensens built: a sorting table, a junior bourse, daily drawings, the Educators Workshop, and the Boy Scout Merit Badge Workshop.
Adapted from WESTPEX – The First 50 Years by Kristin Patterson, © 2010 WESTPEX, Inc. · About this history →