South Carolina vanity plate is starting to help children

COLUMBIA - Nearly five years after parking his race car at the Statehouse, Jeff Burton has seen his idea to help troubled children come to life.

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A plan, partly created by Burton and his wife Kim, to use proceeds from sales of South Carolina NASCAR license plates for charity gave its first major donation of $17,000 from the South Carolina Emergency Shelter Foundation to the McCormick Children's Home Inc.

"This is a really neat deal," Burton told The Associated Press by telephone this week. "For a while, we weren't sure how this would turn out. We're really glad it's going like this."

Burton pitched his idea to then-Gov. Jim Hodges and lawmakers in 2000. He hoped part of the funds from selling specialty NASCAR plates could go to some of the 23 children's shelters and homes throughout South Carolina.

The law was signed by Hodges, with Burton alongside in his racing suit, before the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in 2001.

While smaller donations have gone out to South Carolina children's shelters from the foundation before this, nothing has compared with the check to the McCormick home.

Robert Muckenfuss, Burton's brother-in-law and attorney, is the foundation's president and brought the check to McCormick's director, Mamie Lee.

Lee took some rundown property near the grounds of the John de la Howe School, a state-supported facility for at-risk children, and turned it into a wonderful living space for 11 children ranging from toddlers to high schoolers, Muckenfuss said.

Any of the six racing tags offered by South Carolina's Department of Motor Vehicles - there's a generic NASCAR design and styles for drivers Burton, Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace, the late Dale Earnhardt and his son, Dale Jr. - cost $70 along with the standard biennial registration fee of $24.

So far, sales of the NASCAR plates in South Carolina have not been brisk.

Records show just 884 plates of all NASCAR varieties sold in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2004. Agency spokeswoman Beth Parks said only 17 such license plates were purchased in the first six months of the current fiscal year.

"We sold a lot very quickly," Parks said. "But there are others we sell more of."

She said the additional cost likely limits sales. Both Burton and Muckenfuss say the few years from introduction to implementation has left some fans unaware they can get a NASCAR plate. The two expect sales to pick up as more people see others driving around with NASCAR plates.

"Anything like this takes time," said Burton, driving in the Dodge Charger 500 at Darlington Raceway this week. "This is a good cause we know people will get behind."