It’s the season of giving and forgiving, which is perhaps why the toys for tickets campaign is so popular.
People who paid their outstanding parking tickets between Dec. 1 and this past Tuesday had the option to pay for their ticket with a toy. The City of Fort St. John donated the proceeds of its Toys for Tickets campaign to the Salvation Army.
“This year we received 97 kids’ toys in the place of parking tickets,” said Lise Levesque, a Fort St. John bylaw enforcement officer.
Jim VanderHeyden, Salvation Army co-captain, said the toys will be heading out the door just as fast as they came in.
“All the toys go down to our toy room. There’s been people coming in to pick up their Christmas hampers today… Parents go in the room and they get to choose three toys for each child,” VanderHeyden said.
Lori Ackerman, Fort St. John’s mayor, says that council and the city are happy to contribute to this worthwhile cause.
“It’s important to make sure that those who are in need at this time of year are looked after and it’s just one way that the city can contribute to the needs of the community,” Ackerman said.
This was the sixth year that the city has run the popular campaign.
Each city parking ticket costs $10. The value of each toy in the Toys for Tickets campaign was expected to match or exceed the cost of a parking ticket, meaning that the campaign raised approximately over $970 in toys for the Salvation Army.
