{"id":25356,"date":"2019-12-05T18:10:15","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T23:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25356"},"modified":"2019-12-05T18:10:24","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T23:10:24","slug":"toys-for-tickets-is-back-for-holiday-season-and-in-the-home-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/toys-for-tickets-is-back-for-holiday-season-and-in-the-home-stretch\/","title":{"rendered":"Toys for Tickets is back for Holiday Season \u2013 and in the home stretch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aurora\u2019s annual Toys for Tickets program is back for\nanother holiday season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On now, through December 13, you can pay your parking\nticket by donating a toy or non-perishable food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In partnership with the York Regional Police, Aurora\u2019s\nBylaw Department has already accepted a bevy of gifts that will warm many\nhearts this Christmas season, but they are looking to do a lot more before next\nFriday\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the program, parking tickets issued from Tuesday,\nNovember 12 to Friday, December 13 can be paid for by donating a new, unwrapped\ntoy or non-perishable food donation at Town Hall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donations will not be accepted after this date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toys for Tickets is now in its fourth year and, according\nto Alexander Wray, Manager of Bylaw & Animal Services for the Town, was\nfirst seen as a way to give back to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe get that people make a mistake, they park on the\nstreet, and instead of the Town collecting the revenue from it, we should be\ngiving back to those in the community who are in need,\u201d says Wray. \u201cWe know\nthere are concerns with poverty and homelessness arising in the community and\nit is a very simple gesture to support the kids over Christmas and just simply\ngive back. This is something positive that can come out of something negative\nand that is genuinely the approach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program collected more than $5,000 in donations last\nyear, exceeding their $4,000 goal, and this year the Bylaw department is looking\nto raise the bar even higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To participate, all you need to do is bring in your\nticket with toys and food in their original packaging, the original receipts\nfor your donations (no photocopies or emails will be accepted), and the value\nof the toy or non-perishable food donations must be equal to or exceed the\namount owing on the ticket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donations that total the early infraction payment will be\naccepted only within the early payment period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donations of more than one toy will be accepted as long\nas the total cost is equal to or greater than the parking fine amount. Cash\nwill not be accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parking ticket recipients that donate a toy with a value\nless than the amount owing, are required to pay the remaining balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All toys and non-perishable food items will be donated to\nlocal toy drives and the local food pantry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the deadline approaches, Wray states that in addition\nto toys for the younger kids, donations for older kids and teens, particularly\ngift cards to stores like Best Buy and EB Games, are encouraged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further encourages those looking to pay off their\nfines think \u201coutside the box a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know that might be a bit of an ask, but things like\nbicycles, electronics, these are things that kids like and it is often hard for\nthem to obtain, especially in these types of situations,\u201d he says. \u201cWe will\nalways take the donation in terms of the minimum value of the ticket, but if\nthe ticket is $40 and you want to donate $100 worth of toys just because it is\ngoing to charity, by all means. You can over-donate. We\u2019ll happily take it and\nthe police would be happy to work with us on it. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about this program, please call Bylaw Services at 905-727-3123 ext. 4245 or visit aurora.ca\/toysfortickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora\u2019s annual Toys for Tickets program is back for another holiday season. On now, through December 13, you can pay your parking ticket by donating a toy or non-perishable food. In partnership with the York Regional Police, Aurora\u2019s Bylaw Department has already accepted a bevy of gifts that will warm many hearts this Christmas season, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2019-12-05-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6AY","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 06:06:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}