This holiday season Bostonians can avoid paying parking fines while giving back to the community starting Dec. 5 as part of Mayor Thomas Menino’s annual Toys for Tickets campaign.
The City of Boston will accept toy donations in exchange for non-public safety parking ticket payments from drivers, according to the City of Boston website. The campaign will run until Dec. 9 and drivers can drop off toys for less fortunate children at City Hall later in the month.
“During these difficult economic times, families are struggling everyday just to make ends meet,” Menino said in a press release. “After putting food on the table and paying the bills, many parents and guardians don’t have the ability to buy toys.”
Violations include blocking handicapped ramps and fire hydrants, double-parking, parking in reserved spots, parking in crosswalks and parking in a fire lane.
“Unfortunately, this means that too many kids are missing out on the joys of the Holiday season,” Menino said in the statement. “This year the demand will be very high. I am asking everyone to give what they can.”
The program allows recipients of parking tickets to opt out of paying their tickets and instead donate a toy of comparable value to Toys for Tots, said Kay Carpenter, office manager at Toys for Tots of Boston, in a phone interview.
The program, which began in 1993, collected $3,495 in toys last year, said James Mansfield, director of community and intergovernmental services for the Boston Transportation Department, in an email.
“The city strongly encourages as many people as possible to participate,” Mansfield said. “It’s for a very worthy cause, especially with so many families currently in tough financial circumstances.”
Mansfield also said that the program has been beneficial to people who receive tickets.
“Drivers who came in with tickets were very happy to have this opportunity to contribute to a charity and pay their bill at the same time,” Mansfield said.
While the program is beneficial to those who receive parking tickets, Carpenter said that Toys for Tots of Boston receives most of their donations from other donors.
“We hope to collect over 140,000 [toys],” Carpenter said.
Carpenter said that most of their donations in the past have not come from the Toys for Tickets program.
“I think it’s mostly helpful for the people who have the ticket because we don’t get a lot of toys from [Toys for Tickets],” Carpenter said. “We probably get 30 or 35 toys [each year].”
Mansfield said he hopes the program will receive more toys this year.
“We hope that more drivers will make the effort to handle their ticket payments with toys this year,” Mansfield said.
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