Success! On July 1, Virginia officially became the first state government in the world to honor Tibet and the Tibetan people, with local campaigners successfully submitting more than required number of applications for the state’s new ‘Friends of Tibet’ license plate. Created with bipartisan support by the Commonwealth’s Assembly and signed into law by Virginia’s Governor Mark Warner, the Friends of Tibet legislation required its sponsors to sign up a minimum number of Virginians as ‘Friends of Tibet’ before the state’s deadline of June 30th. With just a few months between the state’s final approval of the ‘Friends of Tibet’ design and the June deadline, Tibetan community members and their supporters swiftly took up the cause and began spreading the word about the license plate to friends and supporters around the state. This grassroots effort led to 100% of Virginia’s Tibetans signing up to participate in the campaign — and to a larger statewide campaign which signed up hundreds more to become ‘Friends of Tibet’.

Excellent! See my earlier post.