Jamicá C. Ashley
There is another way for people in the North Carolina to show support for American troops overseas.
The Support Our Troops! license plate debuted this month across the state in Department of Motor Vehicle offices and so far it's been well received.
"Our neighbors are deployed and stationed all over the world to protect our safety and interests here at home. This license plate lets us show them and their kids here at home how much we care," said North Carolina Support Our Troops State Coordinator Pamela Parker.
"The Support Our Troops! license plates allow people to publicly show their support for their troops and families, surround the troops' kids here at home with messages of encouragement, and raise patriotic private money to bolster the troops and their families who are both sacrificing so much to protect all of us."
The license plates cost an additional $30 per year.
The Support Our Troops! license plate has red and blue stripes across the top of the plate with white stars, the logo of a soldier and a child looking at one another on the left and the words Support Our Troops! at the top over the red and blue stripes.
Martin Boire, chairman of the SupportOurTroops.Org, said that the license plate has been approved in 25 additional states and that people seem to really appreciate the specialty item.
"The response is overwhelming gratitude about how wonderful the good it will do and what a beautiful looking plate it is and that it will grow into a great matter of pride for North Carolina," he said.
Support Our Troops is a non-profit organization aimed at protecting the well-being of troops and their families. The organization says that it offers "simple, easy everyday methods through which folks can stick up for those who stick up for all of us."
Bruce Jonas, vice president of Support Our Troops said that over $6 million in goods were sent to overseas locations to troops and that the organization is on target to do about $7 million in 2010.
In 2000, there were more than 85,000 active duty military members in North Carolina with more than 100,000 total military personnel.
The license plate can be ordered at the state License Plate Agency office in the County Administration Building at 201 Saint Andrew St. or through the state DMV Web site.
All personalized and specialty plates have to be ordered, said Heather Jones of the county tag office.
No one has ordered the new tag yet, but Jones thinks that may change since the office has received a flyer Wednesday to post on the wall.
There are more than 100 specialty plates available in North Carolina, she said.
“The most popular are the Smoky Mountain and Blue Ridge Parkway tags,” she said. “People think they are pretty.”
