After four years of campaign efforts, the Florida State Beekeepers Association (FSBA) has officially met its goal of selling 3,000 pre-sale vouchers for the “Save the Bees” specialty license plate. The final paperwork and vouchers were handed off to Chief Administrative Officer Tyler Brandeburg during a small celebratory gathering at the Lake County Tax Collector’s Office on Monday.

The plate, which is expected to become available to the public around October 1, will generate ongoing funding for honey bee research, outreach and education. Proceeds will go to FSBA, which manages programs at both the state and local levels.

“This plate has been years in the making,” Senator Kevin Rader says, who helped champion the bill in Tallahassee. “There was a time when no new license plates were being considered. From 2016 to 2020 we had a moratorium, and people said it couldn’t be done. But thanks to a united effort and leaders like Senator Alan Hays, Melony Bell and Billy Fussell, we’re here today holding that license plate in our hands.”

The idea for the specialty plate began as a conversation among Florida beekeepers and grew into a full-scale campaign, spearheaded by FSBA and supported by elected officials, agriculture leaders and thousands of bee advocates across the state.

“As soon as I got elected, beekeepers were knocking on my door saying we needed a license plate,” Melony Bell, currently the Supervisor of Elections in Polk County, says. “And in the House, it was, ‘No more license plates—we’ve had enough.’ So Kevin went to bat with us and we got that bill passed through. Senator Hayes was there, so it was just all of us in a working progress.”

Billy Fussell, District Chair for FSBA and founder of the Lake County Beekeepers Association, was praised for his ingenuity and persistence throughout the process.

“If you look around, everyone here played a part in the process of seeing this through” Billy says. “I think it was an awesome thing.”

The funds will benefit research conducted at the UF Honey Bee Research and Extension Lab, statewide education and outreach programs and local and regional grants for beekeepers and clubs supporting honey bee health.

Though the 3,000-voucher milestone has been reached, the campaign is far from over. Vouchers are still available for purchase at www.savethebeesplate.com, through local tax collector offices, or as gifts via Florida’s Specialty License Plate Gift Certificate Program.