Florida drivers have bought 3,000 “Mentoring Changes Lives” vouchers, greenlighting a new specialty license plate that will fund student mentorship statewide.
“Earlier this year, we asked Floridians to show our students that a whole state is cheering them on, and 3,000 people said yes,” said Bethany Lacey, chief executive officer of Take Stock in Children. “Every one of those vouchers is a promise to a young person who might be the first in their family to go to college. Soon those promises will be on the road across Florida, and they’ll help fund student mentoring for years to come.”
Take Stock in Children, a Florida-based nonprofit providing mentoring and college scholarships for low-income students, detailed the campaign’s success, which fulfills an initiative first detailed in July, and with this milestone met, the plates now move into production and will be put on Florida roads.
Kelly Henning, Account Executive at Take Stock, noted that the organization—founded in 1995—has partnered with the Education Foundation of Osceola County since August 1996.
“My first thought was just enormous relief and gratefulness that Florida, as a state, came together to support our students,” Lacey said, noting it will take the state about 90 days to produce the license plate.
The license plates ensure Take Stock has long-term funding so students can get the mentoring support that they need to be succussed and complete their post-secondary journey.
“As long as we have this license plate, the funds go directly to supporting the mission and to supporting more mentoring and coaching opportunities for students and scholarships for students to go to college,” Lacey said.
Lacey said voucher holders will receive an email from Take Stock with instructions to redeem their license plates through their county’s tax office, and $25 from each annual registration will go to Take Stock.
“I’m ecstatic because it just means more opportunities for other students because I know I valued my mentor so very greatly,” said Alexis Vu, a freshman at the University of Florida and Take Stock in Children alum. “I was super lucky that I was paired with my mentor during my freshman year.”
Lacey said It’s a very meaningful thing to be a student and to know that people across the state are cheering you on and came together to make this happen.
“Take Stock could not have done it alone,” Lacey said. “It was our mentors and our families and our students who are of driving age and just community members and partners that believe in the work that we do that made this happen and ultimately believe that every student needs the same opportunity.”
Lacey said this is just the beginning of the journey.
“The next step is to make sure that everybody that got a voucher redeems the voucher so that they actually drive around with the tags on their car,” Lacey said.
Lacey said whenever people renew their license tag, they will need to select the Take Stock license plate.
Lacey shared that the organization breaks Florida’s cycle of poverty by supporting first-generation students from middle school all the way through college graduation. She said every participant receives long-term mentorship, workshops, and a guaranteed Florida Prepaid scholarship doubled by state matching funds.
The plates’ design is a Florida sunset with a beach background and two starfish on the beach. She said it took inspiration from The Star Thrower by anthropologist Loren Eiseley.
“There is an old story that many people have heard about an old man who was on the beach, and he was walking down the beach, and when he’d see a starfish on the sand, he would pick it up and throw it back in the water,” Lacey said. “ And somebody standing on the beach watching him went up to him and said,’ Oh, there’s hundreds and thousands of starfish. You cannot save them all.’ And he said, ‘But I can save this one.’” Lacey shared that no one could solve every problem alone, but everyone can contribute. She said that paying a little extra for a custom license plate directly transforms the lives of deserving students throughout Florida.
“Knowing that so many other students will be able to build a relationship with their mentors and be more likely to get more opportunities is a very fullcircle moment for me,” Vu said.
