The Fort Findlay Stamp and Postcard Club marks its 57th year with its annual show, Finpex 2011. The theme of this year's show is the Centennial of the Vin Fiz Transcontinental Flight, according to Scott Little of Bluffton, who is president of the club.

This year's show dates are Saturday and Sunday, March 26 and 27. Show hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

A special show postmark and cover commemorating the Centennial of the Vin Fiz flight will be available for sale on each day of the show. In addition to a dealer bourse with a dozen stamp and post card dealers, there will also be a youth table with free stamps, stamp exhibits, food available for purchase and a prize raffle.

The United States Postal Service will be in attendance Saturday, March 26. In addition to selling stamps, they will also be registering applicants for United States Passports. Applicants should bring a certified copy of their birth certificate and one photo identification.

Parking and show admission are free. The show will take place at "The Lighthouse" Building, 10055 State Route 224 West, Findlay. The Lighthouse is 1-1/2 miles west of I-75 exit 159. For more information please call (419) 296-5565 or email [email protected].

Stamp and post card collectors are always welcome at regular club meetings, the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at 7 p.m.. The meeting place is Trinity Lutheran Church, 935 W. Bigelow Ave., Findlay.

The story of the flight of the Vin Fiz is quite amazing all by itself. But throw in private postage stamps and things really got interesting.

In late 1910, less than seven years after the historic Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk, NC, American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst proposed a $50,000 prize to the first "birdman" who could fly coast to coast across America, in either direction, in less than 30 days. The journey would need to be completed within a year after the proposal and would have to make stops in cities where Hearst owned newspapers.

Calbraith Perry Rodgers, grandnephew of naval hero Oliver Hazard Perry, set off westward from Sheepshead Bay, N.Y. on Sept. 17, 1911 with backing from Chicago meat packer J. Ogden Armour. In return for Armour's financial assistance, Rodgers' plane sported advertisements for the grape soda Vin Fiz, Armour's newest product line.

Due to Hearst newspapers, Rodgers became a virtual household name as he moved westward across the continent. What had not been expected were the mishaps, which some claim to include at least 16 crashes. Finally landing in Pasadena, Calif., after 49 days, Rodgers did not claim the prize, but did put his name in the history books with his historic journey.

Somewhere about Oct. 14, 1911, just past Kansas City, Mo., in a fundraising effort, Rodgers' wife Mabel began selling private airmail stamps for 25 cent each, which would assure the purchaser that a letter would be flown on board the primitive Wright EX model plane. The large black ink stamps were inscribed "RODGERS AERIAL POST" and "VIN FIZ FLYER" with a picture of an airplane in the center.

Today only 13 known examples of the stamp exist. In 1999, a postcard with stamp sold at auction for $88,000. More recently in 2006, four copies were sold at auction. An envelope with stamp sold for $70,000, and three stamps on postcards sold for $60,000, $60,000 and $47,500. Tragically, Rodgers crashed his plane off of the coast near Long Beach, Calif., on April 3, 1912 at the age of 33.