MacDonald pleading for your participation

Post Office Bay, in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, is the site of the famous Post Office Barrel that contains postcards addressed to people all over the world, sans postage. Visitors are invited to peruse the cards on their way through, and hand-deliver any they can. The custom began when a bunch of English whalers were passing that way some 220 years ago and one day decided to set up a barrel as an impromptu mail service - passing ships would pick up or drop off the mail depending on the ports they were going to.

"It's the same idea as a message in a bottle, only this time the message is a postcard, the bottle is a barrel and the barrel is the one of a deserted tropical island, not you," says the jovial MacDonald. "I heard about this about a year ago, and it amazed me that something like this hasn't been expanded on." So he's taken it in his own hands.

"What I'm asking people to do is mail postcards to my P.O. box, where I'm collecting them, and on April 6 I'm leaving for the Galapagos Islands. I'm going to put all the postcards I have at that time in the barrel in the Galapagos, and leave them. What happens next is up to fate, weather, tourists who go there, you name it. Whoever goes by this barrel is going to look through the postcards - if they want to hand deliver one to someone, they'll take it to the person, whether they live in the Ukraine, Argentina, Australia, Montreal or wherever. It's all up to chance and the good will of others."

To date, MacDonald has gotten a couple hundred postcards ranging from drunkenly scrawled jokes to fatalist romance-seekers' missives. Add to the panoply by sending in your own - you'll help him in his dream of setting up such barrels all over the world.

Mail your Going Postal 3000 postcards (before April 1!) to P.O. Box # 55067, CSP Fairmount, Montreal, Quebec, H2T 3E2. Surf to www.goingpostal3000.com for info.



 
 

		Write your comment on this article!

More than just a letter     5{ a handwritten letter means so much more than an email. Its sad to think, it wasn't that long ago that stamped mail was the way to go... how quickly our internet consumed society has grown. Personally, I think its a great idea! If so many of us feel that getting just a letter is thrilling, imagine the thrill that will accompany a letter that has been dependent on the commitment, and devotion of simple strangers? I view this as more a test of human kindness, than anything else. Well done, Kyle.
C Stanway	{8 votes}	April 5th, 2005
Reach out and touch someone...     I don't want to be cynical and paranoid and see this as a bad idea. I think there is, after all, a sort of old-world charm to it. On the opposite side of the spectrum from instant messaging and e-mail, there's this: some mix between a time capsule and a letter, a message that may never find anyone to hear it. Still there's something charming in the attempt, in the idea that maybe, someday, it will.
Karen Sollazzo	{24 votes}	March 30th, 2005
Tourist Attraction     I can see this as being a cool thing to see if you're ever in Ecuador, go look at a bin full of postcards and maybe see some addresses near where you live or where you're travelling too. I always wondered what happened to postcards I sent out on vacation that never reached my friends and family. Maybe one day twenty years from now it will appear in a friends mailbox, who knows what could happen. I think they best thing to do with things like this is just let it happen, don't expect anything, it's like a time capsule.
Josee Lacroix	{7 votes}	April 7th, 2005
"I'm Sending An SOS, To You....I Hope That Someone Gets My..Message In A Bottle.."     Well, at least this story builds on an old tradition and they get forgotten unless someone is prepared to bring them back. Those old sea tales never harmed anyone and this story is kind of fun. What's the harm is trying out your chances that someone could recognize your address and drop off a postcard with the blessing of the Galapagos Island and maybe the smell of a little salty sea spray thrown in for good measure? This is refreshing and a good idea and MUCH better than watching Tom Hanks stranded on a deserted island with a volleyball.
Steve Landry	{15 votes}	April 5th, 2005
Where do they all come from?     Of course I'm not talking about the postcards that Kyle will take (a bit of an odd take on a postman, really), but the ones that are already in the barrel? I presume, from the article, that they are postcards from Ecuador without enough postage on - but then why take them to a barrel in the sea in the first place? Why why why? I think this is a very fun idea but does seem to fly against the whole point of the barrel idea - if it is meant to be a place where 'lost in transit due to lack of postage' cards and letters go, then doesn't deliberately taking some there sort of defeat the object?
Ellen Reid	{15 votes}	April 4th, 2005
Cool Idea     This is a very cool idea and Kyle already has my postcard. I don`t know if somebody will deliver it back to me. Nobody I know will go to the Galapagos Islands in the near future. So I think my postcard will melt in the heat until somebody will bring it back to me in a couple of years from now. But hey you never know, maybe a beautiful brazilian bronzed beauty will show up at my doorstep and wants to meet me (just dreaming - my wife would kill me). So everybody send him a postcard, sit back, relax and see what happens !
Dirk Wagner	{11 votes}	April 1st, 2005
Going Postal 3000- go, going, gone     Outstanding, in this day and age where we all leave voice mail messages or emails it is nice to know that someone still cares about our scribbled writings and will save it for others to find. I am hopeful that someone so kind as Mr. MacDonald will take interest in the petty day to day writings of my life on this gorgeous planet and It will be funny for others to read. Bravo to this renaissance man!
Renessa Cabrera	{31 votes}	March 28th, 2005
The world is just one barrel away     Looking for love, looking for help, looking to joke. All reasons are apparently good to be a part of this postal service. I don't really want a stranger to come by my door to deliver a post card so please refrain from addressing any to me. Unless of course, you want to warn me about the loss of your loved ones who don't care about you but care about me. Then I may make an exception. No crazy desperate fools looking for desperate love. No blonde jokes.
Marc Charette	{31 votes}	March 29th, 2005
For those who have nothing better to do.     I am pleading with MacDonald to let me help him carry all these post cards to the Islands .I will of coarse leave my postcard as well but at the same time I might enjoy the sights of the Island and maybe because I am helping my trip would be paid for. Yes it is great idea and I would definitly like to help out , I will also bring my uv protection for the sun and a cool hat and if you like, I could stay there and get things started by perhaps telling the tourists about this idea and encouraging them to participate. It would be killing two birds with one stone, cause it has been so long since I have had a vacation.
Maria Cecillia Silva	{21 votes}	March 26th, 2005
Ecuador- That's Hot!     What a cool idea! It would be so interesting for someone to actually pick up my postcard and hand deliver it to me. This should be quite an adventure for MacDonald and I would love to hear all his tales when he gets back. Well, gotta go now and dig up an old postcrd to send Kyle.
Heath Abram	{16 votes}	March 24th, 2005

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