Campus Police Forgives Parking Tickets in Exchange for toys for kids in need at 21st Annual Tickets-for-Tots

Published 4 years ago -


Marisa Butler, Staff Writer

This week marked the 21st annual Tickets-for-Tots Program hosted by Assumption College’s Campus Police at the Christmas in Charlie’s event. This program forgives student parking tickets while giving back to the Worcester community.

In lieu of paying a parking ticket, Tickets-for-Tots allows members of the campus community to have their fee forgiven in exchange of a donation of a non-violent toy or $10 in cash.  Toys collected are donated to the U.S Marine’s Toys-for-Tots campaign, while the cash is donated to the Telegram & Gazette’s Santa Fund.

Lt. Keith Hough of the Campus Police Department shared that paying a full price ticket may be difficult for some students, so to eliminate this financial burden, they provided an opportunity to give back to a child. “It’s important to have the Assumption community giving back to the Worcester community each year at this time,” he said.

According to Lt. Hough, each year, the number of participants and toys received varies. He added that in previous years, large numbers of toys have been collected to share with different organizations. “In addition to Toys for Tots, we’ve donated to Catholic Charities, surrounding towns, and the year of Hurricane Katrina a group of Assumption staff members drove down to the hardest hit areas with a trunk load of toys that were taking in during our Tickets for Tots event,” he said. Each time the department presents the toys and donations, Lt. Hough said they make sure to let the organizations know that they are from the Assumption College community and not just Public Safety.

This semester, Laura Holland’20 found herself with a ticket that she was hesitant to pay. This was Holland’s first ticket and had not heard about the Tickets-for-Tots event prior to this. “When I heard that I had the opportunity to give back to a child in need, I was excited that I could not only have my ticket forgiven but hopefully I would make a child’s day,” she said.

Although Campus Police had only set up this booth for a couple of hours, they were accepting gifts until Monday, December 9.

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