Astrid Morgensen won the grand prize draw for the positive ticket program (Photo: City of Grande Prairie)

By Abby Zieverink

Enforcement Services

Grande Prairie Enforcement Services successful 2021 positive ticket program

Oct 21, 2021 | 1:00 PM

Grande Prairie Enforcement Services says they’ve completed a successful summer of their positive ticket program, which saw 29 youth throughout the community recognized for practicing safety protocols and helping other youth in the community.

The positive ticket program, launched back in June 2020, sees officers’ hand out “positive tickets” to children and youth who help promote safety and positivity in the community.

Sgt. Ross Gear with Enforcement Services says the message they hope to give with these tickets is to encourage youth to set positive examples in the community.

“Like, ‘you’re doing this, and that’s really good, and we appreciate that you’re doing these things,” he said.

“It gives our officers a chance to interact with the kids and to really reinforce the good things that they do, and sometimes with kids it’s really important to have that positive reinforcement.”

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Out of the 29 tickets handed out between June and August this year, Gear says many were given to youth setting excellent examples of properly wearing a helmet while riding their bike.

“We really want to enforce that, that’s a very key part of the safety equipment on a bicycle, and it’s great to see. The more we can promote that the better it is, it certainly contributes to safety.”

Other safety practices officers handed out positive tickets for included crosswalk safety.

“That stop, point, proceed kind of deal. We want them to be very safe crossing the road. That can be a high-risk event for our smaller people and when we see someone doing that properly, and really being careful crossing the road, that’s a great thing,” said Gear.

He adds tickets were also handed out to youth showing good citizenship.

“This year our officers saw one boy helping another boy at the skate park with the skateboard and really mentoring him and helping his friend learn how to use a skateboard. We thought it was a great thing, one kid mentoring another kid, that is a great thing.”

Gear believes the positive ticket program plays a small role in helping to encourage a safe community in Grande Prairie.

“Safety has to come from the parents, it has to come from the schools, it has to come from all walks of life, right?”

The positive tickets could then be redeemed for a small bag of City swag & prizes.

Once a ticket is redeemed, that youth is also entered into a major prize draw this year, the grand prize was a Nintendo Switch console and Lego Worlds video game.

This year’s grand prize winner was Astrid Morgenson.

Gear says the plan is to have this program return next year to continually encourage positive interactions and safety in the community.