Nonprofit Groups and Motorists Alike (heart) New License Plates

One of the latest fund-raising fads to hit the California charity circuit is the sale of specialized license plates that benefit everything from wilderness conservation to arts education.

Want to show Yosemite National Park you care? For 50 bucks, buy a license plate depicting the snowy peaks and azure skies that have made the park famous. Proceeds go to the preservation-minded Yosemite Fund, after the state Department of Motor Vehicles takes its cut.

Eager to give children’s causes a hand? Then purchase a California Kids’ Plate from the Children’s Advocacy Institute, which enables you to use symbols on your license plate for the first time, as in “ILA” or “*GAZER.”

And if you believe culture has taken a beating in the Golden State, shell out $20 for a California Arts Council plate, so that the fine arts get a financial boost while the back of your car gets to show off the palm trees and beautiful sunsets we pretend to experience every evening on this end of the country.

In the past, the 1.25 million personalized license plates sprinkled throughout California have been issued by the DMV. But now, a handful of nonprofit organizations--which still require DMV approval of their specialty plate designs--are hoping to cash in on the same individuality.

Thousands of residents have already bitten, like the man who loves YOSEMIT, the Bruin who H8S SC and the clever folks who profess to be NON+D, a SELF*TR, or an ACEOFS.

“It’s a declaration of individual identity,” says Brenda Bright, an anthropology professor at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., who studies car-customizing. “There is . . . this profusion of ways (for people) to mark their identities as unique and significant. The car and especially the license plate in L.A. is a part of that.”

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For Jay M. Steren of Malibu, UCLA Class of ‘62, the new style of plate is a way to push college boosterism to another level. His special UCLA plate, emblazoned with a little gold Bruin and the university’s initials embossed in blue letters on the side, urges his alma mater to LMN8SC.

“Before, no one would talk to me, and now everyone reacts,” Steren, 54, says of the motorists he watches in his rear-view mirror or the drivers who flash signals at him as they whiz past his Infiniti Q45. “In some cases it’s a thumbs-up, in some cases thumbs-down and in some cases a single digit. . . .

“So far no one’s thrown eggs at me, but I haven’t driven by SC, either.”

To launch their fund-raising drives, the various organizations had to win approval from the state Legislature.

Each charity must collect 5,000 applications before its plates can go into production at the Folsom prison near Sacramento. Within the past year, four groups have qualified, with a fifth--a veterans association--on the verge of surpassing the 5,000 mark. Four more organizations, from a land conservancy in Lake Tahoe to a state firefighters foundation, have also been given the green light to advertise special plates.

Even a fraction of the $33 million generated annually by traditional vanity tags--which have been around for 20 years--will be a boon to these organizations.

The Yosemite Fund has so far raked in $200,000 from the sale of 15,000 plates. “This will be the park’s greatest ongoing source of private revenue,” predicts Keith Schiller, the Bay Area attorney who spearheaded the effort.

Perhaps the most interesting of the new offerings are the California Kids’ Plates, which allow the use of symbols--hearts, hands, “plus” signs and stars--and are due to hit the streets this fall.

“We think the star is very L.A.,” says Geraldine O’Connor, a spokeswoman for Assemblywoman Jackie Speier, (D-Burlingame), who sponsored the Kids’ Plates legislation.

You’ll get no argument from Arlette!, an actress, singer and dancer who lives in Lancaster. (Yes, it’s her legal name.)

“L.A.’s the place. I have to be here,” says Arlette!, whose specialty license plate will pine “OOH2BA*”.

Lynn Blythe of Orange leaped at the chance to inscribe a heart on her plate, but for an entirely different reason than other applicants, who have declared their love for K9S, QPONS, even TUPWR.

Blythe’s only child, Holly, underwent a heart transplant in November, 1990, when she was less than 6 months old. Now the girl is healthy and active, so in a tribute to her daughter’s resilience and courage, Blythe signed up for a “NEWKID” tag.

“I had to get that plate. I wanted that plate badly,” says Blythe, 34.

“I thought it was the greatest thing. I want people to know that I have a little girl here who had a heart transplant”