Kristen Ollies started the collection in 1999, when she was in fifth grade. 48 album pages are shown here, and the collection is still growing.
Kristen began stamp collecting in third grade, when her teacher started a school stamp club. She and other children exhibited their collections at the National Postal Museum in 1997. That sparked Kristen's enthusiasm, and she has continued to build and exhibit stamp collections ever since.
To create her Queen Elizabeth II collection, Kristen learned about the Queen by reading books, watching TV shows, and searching the Internet. She and her family also went through catalogs to learn about stamps that show the Queen. Kristen looked for those stamps at stamp camps and by asking other collectors.
Kristen's favorite part of stamp collecting is exhibiting her collection. Kristen was able to show her collection to the Queen herself in 2002, at the Festival of Ontario. The Queen told her it was “splendid.”
If you are interested in stamp collecting, Kristen's advice is to think about what you find interesting, just as she did. The great thing about stamp collecting, she says, is that there are stamps for everyone.
