A day before his 120th birthday, the Springfield Museums is honoring Dr. Seuss with the best gift ever: the official launch of a Massachusetts license plate honoring his legacy!
In March 2019, the Museums began a campaign to offer Massachusetts drivers a specialty license plate featuring the Cat in the Hat. Orders came in quickly at first, but then plateaued during the pandemic. Recent efforts to resurrect the campaign got things moving again, and this week the Museums hit a huge goal: 785 plate orders (and counting), exceeding the 750-plate minimum that the Registry of Motor Vehicles requires to begin production of a specialty plate.
“We are thrilled that we’ve hit this milestone just in time for Dr. Seuss’s birthday tomorrow,” said Kay Simpson, President and CEO of the Springfield Museums. “It will certainly add an extra element of excitement to our celebration here on the Quadrangle tomorrow – and will of course add a wonderful, whimsical feature to the cars of all the drivers who purchase one of these plates.”
But this is not the end of the campaign, Simpson stressed; rather, the Museums are hopeful that the plates themselves will become their own best marketing tool, as they appear on cars across the state – and then prompt the sale of even more.
The specialty plates cost $40 (in addition to standard vehicle-registration fees), and a portion of that $40 goes to support the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum. When the plates are re-registered down the road, the Museums will realize the entire $40 per plate.
“We are so very grateful to the hundreds of people who placed orders for these plates over the past five years and have patiently waited for us to reach this incredible moment,” Simpson said. “We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your belief in the value of this campaign, which at its core is about a commitment to literacy and to the joy of reading that Theodor Seuss Geisel inspires in all of us.”
“Millions of people have found true joy in reading and learning, thanks to Dr. Seuss,” added Sen. Adam Gomez, D-Hampden. “These license plates are a wonderful and very visible tribute to his genius – and a reminder of his roots right here in Springfield.”
According to the RMV, it will take another six to eight months for the specialty plates to be produced; in the coming months, the Dr. Seuss plates will be added to the DOT website, as another specialty plate option available when Massachusetts drivers register their cars.
Questions about the Dr. Seuss License Plate campaign? Please call the Springfield Museums Development office at 413-314-6458 or email development@springfieldmuseums.org.
Image (left to right): Rep. Brian Ashe, Springfield Museums’ Trustee Jane Albert, Mayor Domenic Sarno, Museums’ Board Chair Cindy Campbell, Museums’ President and CEO Kay Simpson, Paul Picknelly, Sen. Adam Gomez, Jennifer Pickering, District Director for Sen. Jake Oliveira, and MGM’s Gus Kim, also on the Museums’ Board of Trustees celebrate the license plate milestone on March 1 in Blake Court of the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts at the Springfield Museums.