Michael Lake and James Tatum Jr. are the 2026 recipients of the American First Day Cover Society's Glenn C. Michel Award for Service to the society.
Mike (right) is currently Chair of the Education Department of the AFDCS, 
recognized as an educational non-profit by the IRS. Among his accomplishments during his tenure are establishing the AFDCS YouTube Channel and coordinating the video presentations on it, and helping the AFDCS make available the Mellone cachet catalogues. In addition, he writes a regular column in First Days, the AFDCS journal, on ArtCraft cachets, a major influence on the FDC specialty. He is an elected member of the Board of Directors.
Jim (left) recently stepped down as Chair of the Honors & Awards Committee and for many years ensured that as many participants as possible at Americover, the annual convention and exhibition of the AFDCS, signed the envelopes which are placed in the AFDCS Archive. He also has served on the Board.
Most members do not know that as television-film editor Jim edited national television commercials and worked with Rankin/Bass Productions on animated movies such as “The Hobbit” and “The Last Unicorn” plus the “ThunderCats” and “SilversHawks” animated series. Mike was a college sports marketing and production executive at ESPN before opening a Signarama franchise, producing a different kind of communications media.
