The U.S. Postal Service used a very large venue – The Mall of America – to host the first-day dedication ceremony for its Scooby-Doo forever commemorative stamp. The big event was held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 14. A crowd of about 100 people gathered for the event near the Sears store inside the megamall in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Scooby-Doo is a cartoon character seen on television since 1969 and direct-to-video movies. The stamp was created in conjunction with two partners – Warner Bros. Consumer Products, which owns the right to the cartoon character and the Scooby-Doo Doo Good project, a social awareness and action campaign for youth led by Generation On. There is no mention of the campaign on the stamp, but the selvage of the 12-stamp pane includes the campaign logo.

The first-day event was well planned and organized. Everyone got a program with a stamp cancelled on the envelope, but there were none to spare.

Postal operations were top notch.  Stamp sales and cancellations were conducted at different tables. The clerks were quite experienced, friendly and knew what they were doing and envelopes with the color first-day postmark on the stamp were available for sale.

The dedication ceremony was a fast-paced one lasting less than 15 minutes. Reporters Kiya Edwards, of television station KARE, Minneapolis, was the master of ceremonies. The Minnesota National Guard presented the colors. Postal employee Cheryl Reko sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The principal speaker was Gary C. Reblin, Postal Service vice president of product innovation in Washington, D.C. Josh Hackbarth, vice president of franchise management and marketing for Warner Bros. Consumer Products offered his greetings and thanks for the stamp.

Scooby-Doo himself next came on stage and joined everyone else to unveil the stamp to the delight of the crowd.

All of this went off without a hitch as everyone had a good time.