On October 4th, 2017, a beautiful ceremony was held to to honor the first day of issue for the brand new Snowy Day forever stamps, based on the classic children’s book by Ezra Jack Keats. The ceremony was held at the Brooklyn Public Library Central Libraryby the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation and the United States Postal Service. Present at the ceremony were Roderick Sallay,U.S. Postal Service Government Relations and Public Policy Acting Executive Director; Brooklyn Public Library President and CEO Linda E. Johnson; author Andrea Davis Pinkney; andEzra Jack Keats Foundation Executive Director Deborah Pope, among others.
Check out these wonderful photos from the event:
The four Snowy Day Forever stamps were unveiled to a full house of Ezra Jack Keats fans and notable guests. (L to R) Dana Tyler, WCBS-TV news anchor; Deborah Pope, Executive Director, the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation; Linda E. Johnson, President and CEO, Brooklyn Public Library; Roderick N. Sallay, USPS Executive Director, Government Relations and Public Policy; Andrea Davis Pinkney, children’s book author; Tammy Hall, professional storyteller; Otto Neals, artist; and Rita Meade, Library Information Supervisor, Bay Ridge Public Library, who sang the National Anthem.
Deborah Pope, Executive Director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, shared stories about Ezra, who was a close family friend. Pope and the Foundation bring the spirit of Keats into children’s lives through programs that foster children’s love of reading and creative expression. Ezra hoped that all children see themselves in Peter, a little boy playing in the snow…and the importance of diversity in children’s books is integral to the Foundation’s activities.
Award-winning children’s book author Andrea Davis Pinkney reading a letter to Peter, the little boy in The Snowy Day, that she wrote for the occasion congratulating him on being featured on USPS Forever stamps.
(L to R) Roderick N. Sallay, USPS Acting Executive Director, Government Relations and Public Policy, poses with Deborah Pope, Executive Director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation. Pope presented a plaque to Linda E. Johnson, President and CEO of Brooklyn Public Library, commemorating the posthumous induction of Ezra Jack Keats into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame in 2015. The plaque will be hung in the Brooklyn Public Library Central Library’s Youth Wing.
Members of the USPS Color Guard lined up to get their copies of The Snowy Day signed by the day’s presenters. At the ceremony, the three-member Color Guard marched to the stage in advance of the performance of the National Anthem.
Second-graders at P.S. 321 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, were invited to a pre-ceremony reading of The Snowy Day with professional storyteller Tammy Hall.
Each of the four new stamps in The Snowy Day 20-stamp booklet features a different illustration of main character Peter exploring and playing while wearing his iconic red snowsuit. The images include Peter forming a snowball, sliding down a mountain of snow, making a snow angel and leaving footprints in the snow.
For more details on the event, and information on how to order these gorgeous stamps, please click here.
