Washington drivers will soon have a new way to show their support for Mount St. Helens through a specialty license plate launching Aug. 19.
The Mount St. Helens Institute created the plate in partnership with the state, and it will be available through the Washington State Department of Licensing. After the state’s administrative costs are covered, revenue from plate registrations will support the institute’s work on the mountain, according to a press release from the Mount St. Helens Institute.
“We’ve seen incredible community interest in this plate since we started the process back in 2019,” Alyssa Hoyt, co-executive director of the Mount St. Helens Institute, said in the release. “We hope every driver who chooses this plate feels inspired by what makes Mount St. Helens so remarkable — a resilient landscape that’s still actively changing before our eyes.”
The institute is auctioning off the first 25 plates, numbered VM00001 through VM00025, from July 11-14.
The auction gives collectors the opportunity to purchase the earliest plate numbers ahead of the public release.
Low-numbered plates are especially prized among collectors, and proceeds from the auction will go first toward the state's plate-implementation fee, with any additional funds directly supporting the Mount St. Helens Institute mission.
“At a time when federal funding for public lands is decreasing, this is an opportunity for partner organizations like ours to step up,” Hoyt said. “We’re continuing to grow our education, volunteer and stewardship programs, all of which benefit from the new plate.”
More information about the plate and the Mount St. Helens Institute’s programs is available at www.mshinstitute.org.
