James River Park drew Maureen Egan to South Richmond and kept her there.
Now, Egan wants to drive the park system's reputation to a broader audience with a specialty license plate celebrating the splendors of a natural gem for the city and beyond.
"We don't give enough credit to what we have here," said Egan, who moved to Stratford Hills with her husband 18 years ago and turned down an opportunity elsewhere to stay. "We don't promote ourselves."
Egan is president of Friends of the James River Park, which is closing in on the minimum 350 pre-ordered license plates necessary for the General Assembly to approve the specialty plate at its upcoming session, which begins in January.
The Friends had 240 applications Thursday, with an eye toward a mid-January deadline for Del. Delores L. McQuinn, D-Richmond, to introduce a bill to authorize the plate.
The $25 annual fee will generate a little money for the Friends to invest in the park — $15 for every plate ordered or renewed after the first 1,000 sold.
The money is "frosting on the cake," said Ralph White, manager of the park system and its strongest voice for decades.
"The most important thing is to show we have pride in this unique resource," he said.
White isn't talking only about residents of Richmond, which owns and manages the 18 parcels that make up the 550-acre park system on both sides of the James.
"We have to recognize this is a regional resource and brag about it," he said. "This is not just for the city anymore."
The proposed plate includes striking images that capture the essence of a park rooted in history as well as play and nature — the James River Railway Bridge, herons in flight and a person sitting on a rock with a dog.
"If we had all the things you can do in James River Park on the license plate, DMV wouldn't approve it," Egan said.
White says the proposed plate proclaims "this is who we are — we are people of the river."
The idea came from Warren Foster, who serves on the Friends' 16-member board of directors.
If approved, the plate would become one of more than 200 specialty license plates issued by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, and the Friends would become one more than 60 organizations receiving revenue for a cause.
Last year, specialty plates generated more than $7.5 million in revenue for the state and $2.8 million for nonprofit organizations, according to DMV.
mmartz@timesdispatch.com
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