Lawmakers push license plates to promote Scouting
<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts joined state lawmakers Thursday to promote the organizations' new specialty license plates that will be available to Illinois motorists next year.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">At least 850 of the license plates must be ordered before they can be issued, said Rep. Jil Tracy, R-Mount Sterling, who sponsored the license plate legislation as it advanced this year in the House. The measure also passed the Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">The license plates are expected to be available in four variations: one displaying the Girl Scout trefoil symbol, one with the Girl Scout Gold Award insignia, one showing the Boy Scout First Class Badge, and one showing the Eagle Scout medal.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">"Anyone can purchase the plate, but to get the design of Gold (Award) or Eagle (Scout), you have to show proof" of earning the honors, said Tracy, a former Girl Scout.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Mark Janus, scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 7 in Springfield, said information about ordering the plates is available online at www.alincolnbsa.org and also should be available through other Boy Scout and Girl Scout councils.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">The specialty plates will cost $40 more than regular license plates. Of that amount, $25 will be deposited in the new Boy Scout and Girl Scout Fund, with the money to be distributed among the Illinois divisions of the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Other lawmakers who participated in Scouting as youths also attended Thursday's state Capitol news conference to publicize the license plates.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Rep. Bill Black, a Danville Republican who also is an Eagle Scout, praised Scouting as "a tremendous opportunity for young men and young women."</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">"There are ideals and certain disciplinary factors that the Scouts instilled in me that I try very hard to live up to," Black said. "It was a phenomenal training."</font>
<font face="Imperial">Another Eagle Scout, Rep. David Winters, R-Shirland, said: "Scouting teaches leadership. And if there's anything that we need in this state, it would be a few more of the leaders of this General Assembly that would have had Scout training and leadership when they were young."</font>
<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial"> </font><font face="Imperial">Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com.</font>