The 4th National Park Passport Stampers Convention will Take Place at Sleeping Bear Dunes NL in Mich

Sleeping Bear Dunes NL, MI, May 02, 2006 --(PR.com)-- The 4th Annual National Park Passport Stampers Convention, sponsored by the National Park Traveler’s Club, will take place at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan on August 12, 2006. The Convention will allow people with an interest in National Parks to come together, tell stories, and show off their Passport To Your National Parks® books. In these books, park visitors receive cancellation stamps at each of America's 390 official National Park Units and at many of the more than 100 Affiliated Areas and other designated areas under the administration of the National Park Service. There are presently well over 2000 stamps; many units have multiple stamps. In addition, there will be a special passport cancellation stamp that will be available that day, only to Convention attendees.

Traveler’s Club secretary Craig Bailey says, "The club’s current president Mike Brown, member Alan Ripps, and I thought up the idea of some stamp collectors getting together. That idea blossomed into the first annual Convention held at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in August of 2003." Mike Brown says, "I expect that next year's, and each following Convention, will grow in size and recognition." Today, the website has over 500 active members. This year's Convention is expected to have guests from as far away as California, Virginia, New Jersey and Connecticut. Scott Stransky, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has been to 322 parks, will be attending the event. Stransky says, "My goal is to get to all of the park units. This Convention will allow me to meet people with the same goal and share travel experiences with them." A number of families that will be present have been to over 300 park units, though anyone with a strong interest in National Parks is encouraged to attend.

The Convention will also serve as the third annual meeting of the National Park Travelers Club (NPTC), which has been formed "to provide networking and recognition opportunities for visitors to America's National Park System." Results of elections for officers shall be announced at the meeting. All avid National Park visitors are encouraged to sign up for the club; visit www.parkstamps.org for more details.

Though Eastern National, the non-profit company that has run the stamping program since its beginning in 1986, does not officially sponsor this event, Brown "would like to thank Eastern National for all of the support they have given us leading up to this year's Convention, and of course, for creating the Passport to Your National Parks® program."

For additional information about the Convention, and the current master list of all cancellation stamps (compiled by member Nancy Bandley, with contributions from all of the members of the group), please visit http://www.stampconvention.com and http://www.parkstamps.org.

Eastern National owns the trademark to "Passport To Your National Parks®."

Neither the 4th Annual National Park Passport Stampers Convention, www.parkstamps.org, the National Park Travelers Club, nor any of the parties involved are affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service or Eastern National.

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