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U.S. Bank donates more than 400,000 stamps to the American Red Cross.  

More than 400,000 postage stamps collected from hundreds of U.S. Bank ATM locations across the country are heading to military bases overseas as part of a recent in-kind donation from U.S. Bank to the American Red Cross.

The stamps are earmarked for the American Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces program that consists of service members stationed around the world at hundreds of U.S. military bases globally, as well as Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals.

“With this generous contribution, we will be dispersing these stamps across the globe to ensure our service members can send those notes home, especially in times like these,” said Tammie Pech, program manager, American Red Cross Service To Armed Forces program.  “Slowing down to take moment for themselves to send a hand-written note to a friend or family member that is different from the way we primarily do things these days, but it’s such an important way to connect.”

U.S. Bank has been collecting stamps over the last two years from more than 500 branch and ATM locations across the country as it moves away from serving as a point of sale location for postal stamps due to dissolving systems and supplies required to maintain ATMs as a distribution point.  Once the nearly 468,000 stamps were collected, then began the process of sorting the stamps to discard those too damaged to use. 

Marcia R Ramirez-Horn, a Portland-based product manager for U.S. Bank, was part of the boots-on-the-ground operation that helped sort and organize the stamps.

“It started with two of us ready to tackle all the packages that were shipped to us, but we quickly realized we needed more help,” said Ramirez-Horn. “We asked the local branch operations team for help and four of them immediately volunteered, with their help we were able to complete sorting and organizing all the stamps in one day.”

The stamps then went on to a team that helped bundle and package the stamps in a way that made it most convenient for the American Red Cross to distribute.

U.S. Bank’s support of the American Red Cross runs deep and well beyond this postage stamp donation as an active supporter of the American Red Cross Disaster Responder program. Each year, U.S. Bank commits $250,000 to disaster services and generates close to $150,000 in donations through the employee grant match program. Last year alone, bank employees volunteered roughly 1,200 hours of service, and about 20 U.S. Bank employees also serve in board positions for local American Red Cross chapters.

Additionally, U.S. Bank activates its ATM network during times of disasters, including wildfires in California, tornadoes in late 2021 in Kentucky and the current conflict in Ukraine, for customers to make donations to the American Red Cross. In the last five years, customers have donated about $300,000 to the American Red Cross through the ATM network.

To learn more about the American Red Cross, visit https://www.redcross.org/.