Toys for tickets?
Toolbox
Published: November 23, 2005
ARRE – Folks who pick up parking tickets in Barre today are being offered an interesting way to pay their fines.
It's a one-day-only deal designed to increase donations to the police department's annual Christmas for Kids program.
Here's how it works.
If you happened to get a parking ticket in Barre today, the fine will be excused if you bring the ticket along with an unwrapped toy of equal or greater value to the Barre Police Department by 4 p.m. on Dec. 16.
Of course parking ticket recipients who opt to pay to pay their fines in the regular way can still donate a toy to a popular program that serves hundreds of needy children each year.
Now entering its sixth year, the Christmas for Kids program was responsible for delivering toys to 270 families with 470 children last year – an increase of about 50 families from 2003.
This year the police department is hoping to distribute 1,000 toys – a target Cpl. Dennis Menard says can't be hit without your help.
That doesn't mean going out and double parking, though. Menard is asking people to contribute to a toy drive that will begin the day after Thanksgiving and wrap up in mid-December. Toy collection sites will be established at the police department on North Main Street and the recently vacated fire station on South Main Street, as well as the city's new public safety building. Collection boxes will also be placed at Aubuchon Hardware, Nelson's ACE Hardware, Family Dollar, Kinney Drugs, Edward Jones Investments and Brooks Drugs.
Menard says the department needs presents for children of all ages – from infants to high school students – and will again be accepting cash donations that give them the flexibility to purchase age- and gender-appropriate gifts on an as-needed basis. Mail donations to the Barre Juvenile Officers Association, Barre City Police Department, 12 North Main St., Barre, VT, 05641.
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