GRAND MARAIS, Minnesota – All are welcome to help Letteracy Deck, Grand Marais’ new free, public letter writing park on Sept. 1-4 reach its 3,000 mark for letters mailed during its inaugural season that began June 21 and ends in early September, 2023. www.instagram.com/letteracydeck

WHAT | Letteracy Deck will host visitors who write, draw and mail 400 letters and cards in four days so Letteracy Deck surpasses 3,000 total pieces of mail posted in 12 weeks from Grand Marais. This more than doubles the 1,400 pieces of mail that Minnesota Children’s Press, the Grand Marais-based charity that invented Letteracy Deck, promised to deliver in its proposal to the funder, Blandin Foundation of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The Blandin Boost Grant seeks innovative ways to enhance rural tourism.

WHEN | A “Love Letters to Lake Superior Post Card & Stamp Event” will be held Sept. 1 through Sept. 4, from 1-5 p.m. each day.

WHERE | Letteracy Deck is located downtown on the lakeside deck of Lake Superior Trading Post. 

HOW | All writing, illustration and mailing supplies are provided free of charge. 

This includes blank DIY post-cards visitors can illustrate in the style of esteemed Cook County Ojibwe artist, the late George Morrison, who is well known for his use of vivid colors in landscape paintings, drawings, prints. Samples of his art will be on display, as well as those of acclaimed artist and Morrison’s former wife, Hazel Belvo, of Grand Marais.

Each DIY postcard will be mailed with a free Morrison stamp from the series first issued to honor his work by the U.S. Post Office April 20, 2022.  Letteracy Deck has 400 of these highly-coveted stamps to give away, one per correspondent, to deepen awareness and appreciation of George Morrison’s vision, achievements and cultural contributions.

WHY | Why 3,000 cards and letters? “It shows the idea of a public letter writing park is more than a valid approach to building community—it really took off!” explained its creator, Anne Brataas, Chief Curiosity Officer of Minnesota Children’s Press. “Letteracy Deck exists to renew wellbeing through reflecting and connecting via mailed cards and letters, and people instantly get that. They welcome it, perhaps even crave it. Anyone can participate, and they do! The overwhelmingly positive response that 3,000 mailings represent is powerful proof of concept for a new, simple, screen-free way to be present to each other and deepen bonds. In our tragically fractured era, this is crucial. It suggests to me that we should create public letter writing parks around the world as a healing and unifying force of civic good.”