Kelowna History
Organized stamp collecting in Kelowna has had quite a long history, going back to 1926, according to an update done by Colin Campbell in the 1980’s. In that year of 1926 the Kelowna Philatelic Club was started with Mr. J.F. Britton the first elected president. In a press release dated October, 1981, reference was made to the Kelowna Stamp Club. It is not known if the Kelowna Philatelic Club was the first formed stamp club in Kelowna or if the Kelowna Stamp Club was a continuation of the Kelowna Philatelic Club, but with a name change at some point.
The Kelowna Stamp Club applied for membership in the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada on September 21, 1967, hence a relatively low Chapter Membership number of 90.
At what point the Kelowna Stamp Club became the Kelowna & District Stamp Club (KDSC) is not known. In the fall of 1980, the Kelowna & District Stamp Club joined the Okanagan Mainline Philatelic Association as Chapter 4. Each year the KDSC is responsible for hosting at least one valley wide meeting of the Okanagan Mainline Philatelic Association. In recent years this meeting has been held in Lake Country.
At the present time the KDSC meets on the 3 rd Wednesday of each month at Branch 17 of the Senior Citizen’s Association (1353 Richter St), starting at 7:00 PM. No meetings are held in July and August. Members buy, sell, and trade stamps, as well as hold an auction at each meeting. Usually a member of the club will give a short presentation on some stamp related topic that is of interest to him or her.
If the first known stamp club was started in 1926, maybe this would be a good year to celebrate our 90th anniversary.
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