Fair headed toward world postcard record
2009-09-05
Visitors to the New York State Fair dropped 1,228 addressed and stamped postcards into a special US Post Office box during the first three hours of the Fair Saturday; one quarter of the way toward the total needed to break a world record.
With the heaviest crowds still ahead, U.S. Postal Service officials were optimistic that they would collect more than the record 4,976 postcards by 5 p.m., when the special "Record Breakin' Station" set up by the Fair's main gate is scheduled to shut down.
The Fair and the U.S. Postal Service are trying to break the Guinness Book of World Records' mark for the most postcards mailed from a single location on the same day. The Post Office is providing over-sized postcards to Fair visitors who wish to buy a stamp and send a message from the Fair.
All postcards will receive a special one-day postmark, prepared with the support of the Syracuse Stamp Club,that commemorates the Record-Breakin' Station. Postage on the free, over-size postcards that will be supplied by the Postal Service at the Fair is 44 cents. Smaller, more typical-sized postcards cost 28 cents to send.
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