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5 Questions: Carlisle woman works eight years to gain approval for women veterans license plates

The Sentinel - 5/21/2019

May 21-- May 21--There's a new Pennsylvania license plate option for women veterans and those wishing to honor them.

The "Honoring Our Women Veterans" registration plate became available Feb. 21 thanks to the work of Carlisle resident Cindy Good. The plates cost $35 of which $15 will be paid to the Veterans Trust Fund and will be used for programs and resources that assist women veterans.

Good worked for eight years to make the plates a reality.

Q. What inspired you to request the special plates honoring women veterans?

A. Shortly after retiring from the Pennsylvania Air National Guard (193rd Special Operations Wing), I was traveling and saw an out-of-state plate that said Woman Veteran on the bottom. I thought it was an awesome way to honor women veterans and remind people that women are veterans too.

Q. How did the process start?

A. This mission began in 2010 with a call to PennDOT to find out how to obtain a woman veteran license plate for Pennsylvania. That's when I learned it wasn't a simple process. Pennsylvania'sMilitary and Special Fund plates have to go through the legislative process, which means they require approval by the House, the Senate and the governor. At that point, I contacted Pennsylvania VFW Headquarters staff asking for help. They responded by sending out an email to all Pennsylvania legislators requesting their support for the creation of a woman veteran license plate.

Rep. Karen Boback stepped up to sponsor the House Bill to create Pennsylvania's woman veteran plate. In 2011, she introduced legislation (HB1869) to create a woman veteran license plate in Pennsylvania. She continued to re-introduce the bill in 2013, 2015 and 2017.

Q. I understand it took several years to happen. What were some of the hurdles you encountered?

A. This mission lasted eight years. If someone would have told me it would take eight years to gain approval of a woman veteran license plate I would not have believed them. After all, everyone I spoke to about it thought it was a good idea. However, I learned that the legislative process is a long one with many steps along the way. Most of the hurdles or frustrations I came across involved the steps in the process.

In my opinion, there were two main hurdles along the way. The highest hurdle was the many steps involved in the legislative process required for authorizing the "Honoring Our Women Veterans" license plate. The first step in the process was to gain approval from the House Transportation Committee. That seemed to be the sticking point because the bill failed to be brought up for consideration by the chair during the legislative sessions in 2011, 2013 and 2015. I always believed that the bill would have been approved if it had been passed out of committee to the House for a vote. When it finally came to the House for a vote in March 2017, it passed with a vote of 196-0 and was sent to the Senate Transportation for consideration.

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The second hurdle in the process was my own fault. It took me way too long to figure out that one person alone is not enough to make things happen. No matter how passionate you are about something you need a team of supporters who raise their voices to their legislators over and over again. I learned that you need to demonstrate a whole lot of support for something before it will have a chance at passing.

So in early 2018 when the bill had not been acted on by the Senate Transportation Committee, I began using Facebook to ask friends to contact their senators asking for support. I attended woman veteran retreats getting signatures on petitions. A statewide action alert requesting support for the bill was sent out by the Carlisle AAUW. I made lots of calls to the senator who was chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.

I believe this uptick of support made the difference because after a year of no action, the bill finally moved out of the committee and was sent to the Senate. The Senate approved the bill authorizing the Honoring Our Women Veterans license plate on Oct. 17 (with one remaining day left in the 2017 legislative session) and it was signed by the governor on Oct. 24, 2018.

Q. What kept you pursuing the plates for so long?

A. Honestly, it was a quote I saw years ago at the Women In Military Service of America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The quote, written by Clara Barton in 1911, goes like this: "From the storm lashed decks of the Mayflower to the present hour; woman has stood like a rock for the welfare and the glory of the history of the country, and one might well add ... unwritten, unrewarded, and almost unrecognized."

I know women have made a lot of progress since 1911 but sometimes I think Clara Barton would still be disappointed. I can't tell you how many times people see the retired Air Force sticker or the chief master sergeant emblem on my car and ask me if my husband was in the Air Force or is he a chief.

I always believed that the simple act of authorizing the "Honoring Our Women Veterans" plate would go a long way towards recognizing the role that women have played in the military. It would be a step towards reminding people that women also answer the call to sacrifice for and serve our country.

This plate is a win-win. Not only does this plate bring recognition to the over 60,000 women veterans in Pennsylvania, $15 from the cost of every plate will go to the Veterans Trust Fund to be used for programs and services for women veterans.

Q. What was it like to finally hold one of the plates in your hands?

A. It felt so good. It was unbelievable because for a long time it seemed like it would never happen. I thought of the women WWII veterans who signed my first petition back in 2013 and was hoping they were still alive to see that we finally have our own plate.

I kept thinking of the phrase "she persisted" because the supporters of this mission (including Rep. Karen Boback, AAUW, Pennslvania VFW Headquarters, sister veterans, friends and family) never gave up. Together, we made this license plate a reality.

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