The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society will be celebrating its 4th Birthday on the 26th October so we’re currently dreaming up ways to celebrate. Here’s what we’ve got planned so far…

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THLAS MEMBERS BIRTHDAY ZOOM – Saturday, 23rd October, 10.30am (UK time)

A chance to join us for a Zoom get together to kick off the celebrations. Open to all THLAS members, it will be a chance to hear about how the Society came about, some of the adventures we’ve had along the way, meet fellow members in breakout rooms, share letter writing stories, ask questions, and very importantly drink a cuppa and eat cake!

If you are a member of The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society and would like to come, email your name and membership number to thlas@outlook.com with “THLAS Birthday Zoom!” as the Subject and we’ll send out the link to you.

A very special thank you to Liz Kentish at Kentish and Co for helping me to host this.

(If you aren’t a member and would like to join click HERE for more information.)

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BIRTHDAY POSTCARD FUNDRAISER

For a donation of £5 the Founder of The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society (me!) will write a 4th Birthday Society postcard from up the Letter Writing Shed to whomever you would like, to anywhere in the world.

All proceeds go towards keeping the Society going.

You can donate via the PayPal button below, or if in the UK by sending a cheque made payable to “The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society” to PO Box 9347, Swanage, Dorset, BH19 9BG.

Birthday Postcard Fundraiser (£5)

They might even be a collectors’ item one day!

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BBC RADIO 2 PICK YOUR OWN PLAYLIST WRITE-IN

Help us try and get a shout-out on Zoe Ball’s Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 on the morning of our birthday. It’s never guaranteed but it’s always a giggle when we write lots of collective letters to someone on the wireless. The three lettery songs we were thinking would be fun are:

• Bruce Springsteen, Letter To You
• Alison Moyet, Love Letters
• Shakin Stevens, A Letter To You

I’m hoping they might inspire listeners to put pen to paper during the day!

Send your letters to this address:

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SOCIETY MUG GIVEAWAY

Look out on social media for how to enter. If you aren’t on social media you can enter by sending me a picture of your favourite stationery either via email at thlas@outlook.com or via PO Box 9347, Swanage, Dorset, BH19 9BG marked “Society Mug Giveaway“.

A winner will be randomly selected on 26th October.

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POSTBOX PARKOUR

Bit of a “Don’t Try This At Home!” one but it was just to let you know that the folks at PK Generations in London have said they would try to mobilise their parkour people to do some woggle-hopping (leapfrogging) over postboxes and record them to share on our birthday.

Just a little bit excited about this! Fingers crossed!

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PURBECK COAST RADIO – 11am, 22nd October

Very excited to be invited on our local radio station here in Swanage on Friday 22nd October at 11am to talk about the Society and all the lovely things that have happened over the years.

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#THLAS4 PAINTED PEBBLES

In the coming days I’m going to “release” some painted pebbles out into the world and hopefully see where they end up. Do feel free to do the same wherever you are in the world!

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CAKE!

Every birthday needs cake! It’s always a giggle coming up with cake designs for our THLAS birthday and, although I haven’t really got a clue at the minute what I’m going to make for this year, if anyone wanted to join in and share some postal baking skills we’d love to see what you come up with.

Here are some examples from over the years…

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LETTER WRITING!

Last but very much not least, one of the loveliest ways to get involved with celebrating The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society’s 4th Birthday is to simply write a letter or postcard to a friend, neighbour, family member or stranger. For all of the above, writing letters is at the heart of the Society.

Thank you so much to everyone for all your support, encouragement and enthusiasm over the years, and for definitely keeping handwritten letters on the map for everyone.

Dinah