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Boston 2026 Contest Winners

Three entrants have been named as winners of the “Boston Connection” contest organized by the Boston 2026 World Expo.

Announced in November, collectors were invited to submit lists of stamps and souvenir sheets related in some way with Boston, site of the next U.S. international philatelic exhibition.

Pedro D. Sarmiento of Fort Washington, Maryland, provided the greatest number of connections with 88. He is a fan of John F. Kennedy, and many of his submissions of US and overseas stamps dealt with aspects of the former president, born and raised in nearby Brookline and educated at Harvard University. Pedro is “90 years young,” an Air Force veteran and member of the APS and ATA, among other philatelic organizations.

The next two winners were selected at random.

Keith Christian of York, Pennsylvania, is also an APS member and just joined the ATA at the Great American Stamp Show in Cleveland this past August. His list included some interesting sports trivia. Willie O’Ree, featured on a 2023 Canadian stamp, was the first black hockey player in the NHL, called up from the minor leagues by the Boston Bruins in 1958. He identified five additional former Bruins players and several Boston Red Sox baseball stars depicted on stamps.

Frank Silviera of Wilmington, Massachusetts, will have a short commute to the Boston 2026 show. His U.S. and American Flag collecting interests were reignited during the Covid pandemic, now as a member of the APS and Waltham Stamp Club based in Weston, MA at the Spellman Museum. Among items he noted was that the first lighthouse built in North America was at Boston Harbor in 1716, and Dr. Martin Luther King received his PhD at Boston University in 1955.

Boston 2026 World Expo takes place May 23-30, 2026, at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Full show details may be found at Boston2026.org and on Twitter and Facebook. Sign up to be added to the Boston 2026 email list and receive updates when available.

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Boston 2026 Appoints Grinfelds

Dzintars Grinfelds of San Francisco, California, has been appointed as Deputy Commissioner General for Boston 2026 World Expo. Yamil Kouri, Boston 2026 President and Commissioner General, revealed the selection on December 30.

Dzintars is a long-time philatelist, becoming the first three-time AAPE Youth Champion of Champions in the early 2000’s, later going on to win top awards in adult national and international competitions with exhibits on his specialties of Latvia, Central Lithuania, and various thematic topics. Most recently he was a national commissioner for the USA at Thailand 2023.

While away from philately for a decade he managed social and digital marketing for some of the largest brands in sports including the Golden State Warriors, San Francisco Giants, and NBA 2K. Now owner and real estate business manager of Grinfelds Investments, LP, he also competes on the Professional Bowlers Association regional circuit.

Boston 2026 World Expo takes place May 23-30, 2026, at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Full show details may be found at Boston2026.org and on Twitter and Facebook. Sign up to be added to the Boston 2026 email list and receive updates when available.

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Individual Donation Received by Boston 2026

Noted philatelist, researcher, author and international Grand Prix award-winning exhibitor

Steven Walske is the latest major contributor to Boston 2026 World Expo.

Steven is perhaps best known for his postal history expertise in a wide variety of areas including mail of San Francisco (1849-1869), North American blockade-run mail (1775-1865), American transcontinental overland mail (1832-1869) and French Franco-Prussian War mail (1870-71), knowledge of which was presented through his many highly awarded exhibits at the international level since the 1990s.

He has authored several articles and co-authored books on his specialties with luminaries including Richard Frajola, George Kramer and Scott Trepel, collecting honors along the way including the Royal Philatelic Society of London’s Crawford Medal in March 2016, awarded as the most valuable and original contribution to the study and knowledge of philately published in book form in the period.

Other donors who have contributed between $10,000 and $24,999 making Boston 2026 World Stamp Expo a reality include Murray A. Abramson, Gordon Eubanks, Vernon Morris, Dr. Tim O’Connor, Daniel Ryterband and Scott R. Trepel. Donations large and small are welcome, and as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization U.S. contributors may qualify for a tax deduction.

Boston 2026 World Expo takes place May 23-30, 2026, at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Full show details may be found at Boston2026.org and on Twitter and Facebook. Sign up to be added to the Boston 2026 email list and receive updates when available.

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Southeast Federation of Stamp Clubs Commits to Boston 2026

The largest regional federation of stamp clubs in the United States has made an initial $1,000 donation to Boston 2026 World Expo and pledged to make three more equal installments yearly for a total of $4,000 towards the once-a-decade philatelic exhibition.

Founded originally as the Georgia Federation of Stamp Clubs in 1991 with six clubs, the twenty-four club member federation currently represents over five hundred collectors in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, the District of Columbia and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It is an active Chapter of the American Philatelic Society.

Its sponsorship in the early days of the Peach State Stamp Show in Atlanta has evolved into the expanded Southeastern Stamp Expo, an APS World Series of Philately exhibition hosted annually in January in nearby Peachtree Corners, Georgia.

Commenting on the unanimous Board of Directors vote to financially support Boston 2026, Southeast Federation President Charles O’Brien III said, “The Southeast Federation of Stamp Clubs, host of the annual Southeastern Stamp Expo, is very proud to announce our donation to Boston ’26. Our member clubs strongly support this initiative to promote worldwide philately.”

On hearing the news Boston 2026 President Yamil Kouri wrote, “This will go a long way to ensure the success of our next US International Stamp Exhibition.”

Information about the Southeast Federation of Stamp Clubs and the Southeastern Stamp Expo taking place January 26-28, 2024 is on their website at sefsc.org.

Boston 2026 World Expo takes place May 23-30, 2026, at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Full show details may be found at Boston2026.org and on Twitter and Facebook. Sign up to be added to the Boston 2026 email list and receive updates when available.

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First Stamp Issue Referencing Boston 2026

Empresa de Correos de Honduras (HONDUCOR), the postal service of Honduras, issued a pair of stamps on October 12 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the formation of its national philatelic organization, the Federacion Filatelica de la República de Honduras (FFRH) and continued support of its membership in the Postal Union of the Americas, Spain and Portugal (UPAEP). Each sheets’ selvedge inscriptions also reference the Boston 2026 World Expo.

The 25 and 35 Lempira face valued stamps depict the first UPAEP post horn logo surrounded by the 28 member national flags and a close up of a stamp collector viewing a stamp with tongs and a magnifying glass, respectively.

The denominations, approximately US $1.01 and US $1.42, pay the basic international 20-grams letter rate to Group 2 and Group 4 countries. They were printed by offset in sheetlets of 30 in a 6×5 configuration. Only 7,500 sets were printed, 250 sheets of each denomination.

Top sheetlet selvedge tabs alternate the Boston 2026 logo with the show dates in English and Spanish. The six lower tabs are each different depicting the Boston 2026 web URL; sheet number; Boston 2026 logo; show dates; a description and Mi Oficina You Tube URL to learn more about philately from member countries; and the logo and QR code linking to the Mi Oficina web page. Mi Oficina is an active online group of mostly Latin American philatelists formed during the pandemic and continues to meet regularly via Zoom. They have published over 600 videos in the past 3 years.

Empresa de Correos de Honduras (HONDUCOR) is online at www.honducor.gob.hn.

Boston 2026 World Expo takes place May 23-30, 2026, at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.