BE NICE License Plate Campaign Began at Kenrose
Published September 2, 2016
Williamson County Schools’ BE NICE campaign began four years ago at Fairview High School, but it wasn’t until last year that a Kenrose Elementary School parent came up with the idea to spread the BE NICE message on the license plates of Tennessee drivers.
“Our family always thought the BE NICE campaign was a fantastic idea; so simple and elegant, like all excellent marketing campaigns are,” said Vojin Janjic, a Kenrose parent who conceived the idea of a BE NICE license plate. “My expectation was that it would become an omnipresent logo, a trademark of everything WCS does or publishes. As I was thinking of a way to make it more prominent, a license plate came to mind.”
After coming up with the idea for BE NICE license plates, Janjic did some online research before taking his idea to Kenrose Principal Dr. Marilyn Webb.
Excited by the idea, Webb knew they had the talent in house to make the idea a reality.
“I told him to let me take it to our PTO because I knew we had to have connections in the legislature on our PTO,” said Webb.
Enter Kenrose PTO member Carla Green.
“Carla was on the executive board and she made the connection with Senator Jack Johnson,” said Webb. “We just knew we needed to move it through the legislature. She took it from there and worked with Senator Johnson to get it done.”
Green called on her past political involvement and connections to push the license plate idea.
“I have been involved with politics on and off for the past 30 years so I didn’t mind doing it,” Green said. “I’ve known Senator Johnson for about 20 years now so I called him and he directed me to his assistant. She sent me the paperwork we needed to fill out and we got that done.”
The paperwork required one WCS PTO group to be the so called “gatekeeper” in the process, so the Kenrose PTO stepped up to the challenge and registered for the plates as a 501 (C) (3) in order to get the ball rolling.
Now, thanks to the involved parents at Kenrose, we may soon see the BE NICE message spread across the state in the form of Tennessee license plates.
“I always say this about Kenrose, we are who we are because of our staff and our wonderful community,” said Webb. “They get involved, they take initiative and they really own whatever is going on at our school.”
For the state to create the BE NICE license plate, at least 1,000 people must be pre-order the plate. Each license plate will cost a total of $36.05, with $12 going to support the BE NICE campaign at the school of the buyer’s choice and $3.25 going toward the Kenrose PTO.
To pre-order a BE NICE license plate, go to https://www.kenrosepto.com/product/be-nice-license-plates/.