I want to thank the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library for choosing me as a finalist last year. I appreciate I have another opportunity to apply. This past year has continued with changes in my life since my divorce. I now live in an apartment with my daughter. We have had to go to food banks on occasion, but I am thankful for the food that was provided to us. My online college classes started out very rocky since I had not developed proficient computer skills while being a stay-at-home mom, but I received additional computer training from the college and now I am doing much better in my classes. I find myself drawing on my life experiences to help deal with obstacles I still face. Going back to school and being financially on my own are two of my biggest fears, but I face them knowing with my continued education, I do have a brighter future ahead. This past year I started a weekly Bible study in the apartment complex where I live. At first, only my immediate family attended to give me their attendance support. However, through the months some of my friends and people from the apartment complex have also started attending. Our group continues to be very active and friendships are being made. I am reaching out and inviting the people from the Bible study to visit my church. By introducing them to a spiritual way of life, which is so important in helping to deal with today’s society, it is a way for me to give back to the community. We do things together as a group like pack boxes for Samaritan’s purse to ship to under privileged countries for Christmas gifts to kids. Applying for your library scholarship last year made me interested in starting my own stamp collection. My collection is topical stamps. The topics I have started to collect are what interest me such as nature, dogs and the holidays, especially Christmas! To add to my collections, I mainly watch for stamps that arrive on mail that is sent to me. I asked my family to save their stamps for me too. During Christmas, I was able to cut Christmas stamps off of the envelopes to save. I went to the United States Postal Service website to learn more about the 2025 Christmas stamps which included “images that evoke scenes of the season.” I also read about the 2024 Christmas stamps. I loved their color and the joyful feeling of them. The site described the design of the four stamps in detail and stated they were “inspired by folk art that create a modern graphic look”. Then I did more research and found there is an online Christmas Philatelic Club. Their website, along with your website, has helped introduce me to this hobby. I see collection terms I know nothing about such as: used or mint, blocks, booklets, sheets and covers, which have nothing to do with bedding! My next step will be coming to the library to help me learn more about stamp collecting and to find stamps to add to my collections. I joined your library this year and as a member and since you have volunteers, I hope to offer some time over my college breaks. Hopefully, I will be able to meet many of you who serve on the scholarship committee. My daughter keeps asking me when she can come as well so I can’t wait to bring her also next time! Thank you for your consideration in awarding this scholarship to me for my continued education.

A life experience I am currently going through is a divorce after 20 years. This has not been an easy divorce. It has been upsetting emotionally, physically and spiritually. I received a cosmetology license 25 years ago and worked full-time when we started our family. After moving from Iowa to Denver, I stayed home to raise our four children. My youngest, Emma, is a student at Metro State University. Over the years, I have developed health conditions that have been triggered by stress during my marriage and now from the divorce so I cannot return to cosmetology. I have decided to attend Arapahoe Community College and obtain a degree in Health Information Technology. This is new to me as the entire degree program is online using my computer. I know my children and church family will be very supportive of me while I earn my degree. This scholarship will help me as I start a career in the healthcare field. Although I will not have one-on-one patient contact, I will be responsible to maintain patients’ medical information including medical care, medications, and allergies. I will give back to the community by ensuring they have accurate medical records for their continued medical care. Through my online courses, I will develop stronger computer skills. My additional computer knowledge will help me give back to my local church. Once I learn the church’s online web applications, I can navigate the church’s website, listen to the weekly message if I can’t attend in person, and use Zoom meetings for Bible studies. Giving back, I will then volunteer to introduce new church members to these applications to use for their enjoyment and benefit. I am not a stamp collector, but in completing this scholarship application my interest has piqued in this hobby. My sister’s husband does collect stamps. His job is handling estate sales and after seeing so many boxes of stamps in basements, he became interested in stamps. The two of us plan on visiting the RMPL to learn more about stamp collecting. Searching online, I found the Cypher Stamp Club for young collectors. Placing stamp club informational flyers in local schools may help spread the word about this club. Students today know about math, history and science so they could be encouraged to start collections based these topics. I believe a first step in getting children into stamp collecting is to get parental involvement. Parents usually drive the younger aged children to the meetings. I have an idea below to help out parents regarding the cost of stamp collecting. To expand membership in the current young collectors club, consider offering gift cards, maybe $20, donated by RMPL for the purchase of stamps only at the library. The gift card would serve as an incentive to members and visitors. A current club member who brings a new visitor to a meeting would receive a gift card. Anyone joining the club would receive the gift card. Anyone visiting for the first time, but not joining, would also get a gift card because being able to purchase stamps may help bring them back to another meeting to join. The gift card would also take the pressure off of parents to come up with money needed for their child to start stamp collecting. This process could boost club membership and would hopefully spur a lifelong hobby for children. Eventually these young collectors would become members of the RMPL! Thank you for your consideration in awarding this scholarship to me for my continued education and my new exciting career!