Wikipedia Articles About
USPS Building Bridges Special Postal Cancellation Series

USPS Publications about Feb 18, 2021:
Feb 17, 2021 Press Release

Karen Earle Lile Letters and Press Releases:

January 12, 2021
Hernando Torres-Fernandez
Consul General of Peru
870 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

Dear Consul General,

In my position as the Executive Producer of the USPS Building Bridges Special Postal Cancellation Series, a partnership that began in 1996 with the United States Postal Service, I write with permission from the San Francisco Postmaster, Abraham Cooper, who will be officiating for the ceremony on Treasure Island on February 18, 2021. And I write with the full support of the Board of Directors of the Treasure Island Museum, and the incoming
Commodore of the Pacific Inter-Club Yachting Association, Patti Mangan who are all co-planners of the events of the weekend of Feb 18-20th, 2021.
it is my pleasure to invite you to be honored by the United States Postal Service to receive the first inking of the USPS Building Bridges Special Postal Cancellation recognizing the friendship between San Francisco and Lima, Peru, the magnificent B.A.P. Union Tall Ship that graced our Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay in 2019 and in celebration of Peru’s Bicentennial of Independence.

Postmaster Abraham Cooper will ink the specially created hand stamp, on a beautiful postcard cachet that features a photo taken of the BAP Union coming under the Golden Gate Bridge last year. It will make the mark you see in the illustration above, cancelling an Our Lady of Guapulo Stamp, in honor of the Peruvian artist who was recently recognized in this newly issued United States Postal Service stamp.

This ceremony will happen on Treasure Island, which was created for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exhibition in 1939, where Peru’s Incan culture was prominently featured in a Pavilion and with two sculptures around the Pacific Unity Fountain that was located on the Island for the fair. On February 18, 2021, we also would like to invite you to speak about the friendship between San Fransisco and Lima, Peru’s Bicentennial of Independence, the BAP Union’s first visit to the San Francisco Bay. We actually scheduled this ceremony to match the exact month and day that the Consul General of Peru in San Francisco gave a speech, opening
the Golden Gate International Exhibition for the first time in 1939. The Oakland San Francisco Bay Bridge was built after the Exhibition opened, and thus USPS is designating the Island for this day and this ceremony as the Building Bridges GIGE Pacific Unity Station, to tie all these
themes together in a symbolic gesture of remembrance, honor and friendship.

With our most sincere respect to you, your country. We celebrate our centuries of friendship and the deep relationships that exist between us through commerce, arts, music, food, pisco punch, dance, and sailing. Our two cultures have intertwined since that first visit of Don Juan
Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra to what we now call Bodega Bay in his honor and the most recent visit of Captain Kurt Böttger and the B.A.P. Union Peruvian Naval Tall Ship.

We are in the middle of a pandemic, affecting us all, as you know. So, I will be letting you know the COVID 19 protocols that apply to our event, and our audience will be virtual, as this ceremony will be live streamed, and also followed up with an interview on Sail Sport Talk on Sports Byline, broadcasting to 82 million listeners in 168 countries, including iHeart Radio,
TuneIn Radio, CRN Talk, 200 US satellite radio stations and the American Forces Network’s 500 radio stations.

With our most sincere respect to you and Peru.

Karen E. Lile
Executive Producer
Art Director / Designer
USPS Building Bridges Special Postal Cancellation Series
since 1996

FROM EXECUTIVE PRODUCER KAREN E. LILE
Press Release
Feb 17, 2021
In Attendance Live:
-SF Postmaster
-Consul General of Peru in SF
-Treasure Island Museum
-Treasure Island Yacht Club
-Pacific Inter-Club Yacht Association
-Live Trumpet Fanfare
-Sail Boats
in partnership with Treasure Island Development Authority

Drive-Through USPS Building Bridges Special Cancellation Ceremony commemorates GGIE and Pacific Unity Feb 18, 2021 2pm on Treasure Island in San Francisco.

Pandemic times require creativity to commemorate the opening day
of the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) on Feb 18th,
1939 with a new USPS Building Bridges Special Postal Cancellation
that recognizes Peru’s Bicentennial of Independence, the Peruvian
Tall Ship Union and Treasure Island Museum. On Feb 18, 2021,
the Consul General of Peru in SF, the USPS SF Postmaster,
Commodore of P.I.C.Y.A, creator Karen Earle Lile and sailboat
captains are engaged in diplomatic overtures between countries, to
court a sister city relationship between San Francisco and Lima,
Peru.

San Francisco’s Treasure Island was literally built as a jewel of
diplomacy to celebrate the two bay bridges and International
relations between the USA and the countries along the Pacific Rim.
Eighty-two years ago on Feb 18, 1939, the relationship between
Peru and SF was highlighted when the Consul General of Peru in
San Francisco, Fernando Berckemeyer, spoke at the GGIE opening
day ceremony before an audience of thousands.

Today’s pandemic ceremony on Feb 18, 2021 is limited by TIDA*
and SF to 12 people at a time on the historic Building One site, so
dignitaries will drive up, contribute their part to the ceremony and
drive on and the activities following the ceremony conclude two
days later.

The Feb 18th ceremony includes speeches, the first inking of the
USPS Building Bridges Special Postal Cancellation stamp and a
ceremonial sail around Treasure Island by the Consul General of
Peru, Hernando Torres-Fernandez on board Karen Earle Lile’s 36’
sailboat Sandpiper. This symbolic circumnavigation of Treasure
Island, will be echoed by boats from 107 Yacht Clubs of the Pacific Inter-Club Yacht Association with a Pacific Rim Unity Parade two
days later at noon.

The USPS Building Bridges Ceremony will open Feb 18th at 2pm
with a Pacific Rim Unity Fanfare composed and performed by
trumpet player/band leader Rob Dehlinger, of the Alpha Rhythm
Kings. The ceremony features the inking of a pictorial hand stamp
for the first issue of a USPS Building Bridges Special Postal
Cancellation for the occasion. When SF Postmaster Abraham
Cooper applies the ink to the Postal cachet for each organization
being recognized in the ceremony, this officially makes Treasure
Island’s Building One an official post station for a period of one day,
a USPS postmaster tradition that dates back to 1898 at the Chicago
World’s Fair.

USPS tradition (prior to the pandemic) allows the public to attend a
ceremony and buy stamps and send mail in person from a
ceremonial postal station. But the USPS Building Bridges GGIE
Pacific Unity Postal Station that day can have no fans in
attendance, so in 2021, the public will order the stamps and
commemorative postal cachets online for two weeks at a site that
will go live Feb 18, 2021 https://sanfrancisco.comteams.com.
These postal cachets, one of which features a photo by Michael J.
Kofford of the Peruvian Tall Ship Union coming under the Golden
Gate in 2019, will be hand stamped and wrapped in philately plastic
and delivered to the addressee’s by U.S. mail.
(*TIDA = Treasure Island Development Authority)