By Sarah Wallace

Sask. village feels the Love all year round

Feb 14, 2017 | 1:00 PM

The Village of Love, Sask. is one popular place come Valentine’s Day.

People from around the world mail letters to the village just for a special post mark stamp. Post Master Connie Black-Sturby said so far 2017 has seen 306 stamps come through the post office.

“Nobody else gets to play Cupid all year long, it is so much fun. Numbers are down a little bit this year, which is kind of sad, probably a lot less people mailing letters and such, but we still do a lot of local ones coming in and out,” she said.

In 2015, the post office saw 621 wedding invitations come through, down a bit from the 1,021 invitations they received in 2011. Black-Sturby said, so far this year, the post office has received 142 wedding invitations looking for the special Love stamps.

“We have had a lot of local ones coming in and out, Prince Albert, Saskatoon, places like that. I’m noticing a lot more persons belonging to postcard crossings, which is an international internet postcard club. I’m having a few more of those coming through here,” she said.

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The post office receives letters from all around the world including the Czech Republic, Serbia, China, Turkey and Peru, all of which get a place on the post office’s world map.

Most people send their Valentines or wedding invitations in a separate envelope to obtain the special Love stamp. Black-Sturby will open the letter sent to the post office, and stamp and send mail inside to wherever it’s supposed to go.  

This year marks the 23rd anniversary of the teddy bear post mark. Three years ago Black-Sturby and her coworker Elaine Wallis created another post mark with a heart.

“We actually got to work with the people in Ottawa to design this one. It says ‘Love at First Site’ on it which is also the name of the history book here in Love,” she said.

Black-Sturby said the post office is an integral part of the community, but there’s a lot more to Love.

The Love Winter Festival was held this past weekend where a couple from La Ronge were married in the village. In August the village hosts a party to raise funds for the local park and for families who have been touched by diseases like cancer and ALS.

Black-Sturby said in July the village also holds the Love Gospel Jamboree.

“I’m noticing a lot more traffic coming in and out. People stopping, taking pictures of all of our different little signs we have going on here. I have actually ordered postcards which have different scenes of our little village, that’s kind of a new addition,” she said.

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid