Tech Families Want License Plate to Honor Victims

After the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech, millions around the nation found small ways to show their solidarity with the victims. Many changed their Facebook profile photos to one of a black ribbon with the letters "VT" over it. Others made YouTube videos. Still others attended ceremonies honoring the victims. 

Nearly five years later, Marjorie Castro, the director of the Centreville-based VTV Family Outreach Foundation, is hoping that she can find 450 Virginians to make one more tribute: buy a memorial license plate for their car.  

"It shows support from the community," Castro said of the effort. The foundation, created by a number of victims' families,  last year, but recently began to renew their efforts. Castro said that alumni from around the state have signed up, but they still need a significant number more. The license plate, which reads "In Remembrance, April 16, 2007," costs $25 for a regular plate, $35 if it is personalized. If the foundation gets to 1,000 orders for plates, they will receive $15 for each plate sold or renewed. The main goal right now is to reach 450 people in order for the General Assembly and the Governor to approve the plate. 

It's an effort that could find special support in Centreville, which was hit hard by the tragedy. Two graduates, Reema Samaha and Erin Peterson were killed by another former student, Seung-Hui Cho. Every year, students at Westfield . Likewise, a golf tournament is held in Peterson's honor at the Westfield's Golf Club in Clifton. 

Castro is hoping that the license plate will be one more positive way to remember Samaha, Peterson, and all of the others who were killed or traumatised on April 16th. 

"Even if you have a vanity plate for just one year, it would mean so much to sacrifice that," Castro said. "Can you imagine pulling up to a whole line of cars with the license plate?"