Turn naughty into nice: Pay parking tickets with toys in Georgina

Toys for Tickets campaign runs Nov. 22 to Dec. 6

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 13, 2019
Amanda Persico

No one likes getting a parking ticket.

But during Georgina’s Toys for Tickets campaign, you can help turn that frown upside down and put a smile on a child’s face.

Toys for Tickets, which had an offshoot run more than a decade ago, is making a comeback.

Drivers who park overnight and get a ticket can pay the fine with a new, unwrapped toy equal to or more than the value of the ticket.

“You can get upset and frustrated,” said the town’s municipal law enforcement manager Mike Hutchinson. “But then you can do something good for the less fortunate.”

The Toys for Tickets program only applies to overnight parking violations between 2 a.m. and 7 p.m. during the two-week period between Nov. 22 and Dec. 6.

Bring in a new, unwrapped toy with the receipt and get out of your tickets.

Fines for overnight parking are set at $30.

On average, the town collects about $6,000 in overnight parking over the two-week period, said Hutchinson.

Based on data from other municipalities, on average between three and five per cent of residents take advantage of the program to spread good cheer.

The hope is to have the program run year after year with the option to expand the time frame or expand the number of offences.

Toys for Tickets also serves as reminder of the town’s winter parking restrictions, which are in effect Nov. 15 to April 15.

“It’s an offence people forget about,” he said of the town’s winter parking restrictions. “Most times, there’s no snow on the ground on Nov. 15.”

As a reminder, residents are required to keep parked vehicles off town roads for at least 24 hours after a snow event during the winter.

Toys collected through the program will be donated to local volunteer firefighter toy drives, the Optimist Club of Keswick annual gift drive and the York Regional Police Holiday Heroes campaign.

Georgina isn’t alone in helping spread some holiday cheer. King Township, East Gwillimbury and Whitchurch-Stouffville have hosted similar programs.

The town also facilitates the Santa to a Senior program each holiday season, with the goal of providing a Christmas gift for each resident at Cedarval Lodge Retirement and Care Community in Keswick and River Glen Haven nursing home in Sutton.

Shoppers can select a Christmas Wish tag from Canadian Tire, Shoppers Drug Mart in Keswick, Giant Tiger and Club 55.

Then shoppers fulfil the wish list and deliver the unwrapped gifts to the participating retail locations.

What you need to know:

• Winter overnight parking restrictions are in effect Nov. 15 to April 15;

• There is no parking on town streets between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. during the winter parking restrictions;

• Toys for Tickets campaign applies to tickets received between Nov. 22 and Dec. 6;

• Drivers can pay a parking ticket fine with a new, unwrapped toy. Proof of purchase required.

 

For more information visit georgina.ca.