OLYMPIA — Special Washington apple license plates will become available July 1, with proceeds going toward college scholarships for students whose families work in the tree fruit industry.
State Sen. Brad Hawkins’ bill to create the plates passed 46-1 in the Senate Feb. 13 and 92-5 in the House of Representatives Friday. It now heads to Gov. Jay Inslee.
The cost will be $40 for the initial plate and $30 for annual renewal. The Washington Apple Commission will contribute $6,300 in startup costs.
Hawkins, R-East Wenatchee, said this is an important year for tree fruit, especially apples.
“We have the rollout of the Cosmic Crisp this year. That’s created in Wenatchee,” he said. “We also have some ongoing trade challenges with China affecting the industry. It happened to be the 25-year anniversary, also, of the Washington Apple Education Foundation. I felt that this year was a really important year for our tree fruit industry, and this bill provides me an opportunity — and the stakeholders an opportunity — to discuss the importance of our tree fruit industry in the state of Washington and the economic benefits.”
Representatives from the Washington Apple Commission and Washington Apple Education Foundation had testified before Senate and House committees in support of the bill.
License plate sales will benefit the foundation’s scholarship program.
“About 80% of our scholarship recipients are first-generation scholarship recipients, and primarily their moms and dads have roles in the warehouses and in the orchards and some of the labor positions,” Executive Director Jennifer Witherbee said. “We also have students whose parents are orchardists or orchard owners, and then we also have students who want to come back and work in the tree fruit industry. About 10% of our applicants have predetermined that they want to be able to work in the industry after graduation. For the most part, our students are studying just about every career interest that you need in a thriving community.”
Witherbee said the Wenatchee-based foundation currently awards just over $1 million in scholarships each year, helping students throughout Central Washington from Okanogan County to the Oregon border. It receives donations from people who work in or support the industry.
The Washington Apple Education Foundation is the tree fruit industry’s official charity and originated through the Washington Apple Commission, said commission spokeswoman Toni Lynn Adams. It’s now a separate entity.
“We work together with them and they do great work providing scholarships to students, so it was a really easy selection,” Adams said, adding, “The Washington apple industry is our No. 1 agricultural commodity produced here in the state, and it has a huge economic impact to all components within the state. It represents over $7 billion in total state economic impact, provides 40,000 direct jobs and 21,000 indirect jobs. It’s just been a longstanding history within the tree fruit industry for creating wonderful and growing communities, especially in these (tree fruit) growing regions.”
Both the commission and foundation said they’ll be promoting the license plates before and after they become available. Witherbee and Adams thanked the legislators for their work in passing the bill and people who signed a petition in support.
