Turn your old car seat into a gift card in Yellowknife this month

Non-profit support group Moms, Boobs and Babies is organizing its second annual car seat collection on August 27 from 10am-2pm in Yellowknife’s Canadian Tire parking lot.

Residents can exchange old, damaged or expired car seats for a gift card of their choice from local businesses that donated to the event. This year, cards include Mint Hair Lounge, Old Town Glassworks and the Book Cellar.

“We had a bunch of people reach out after the event [last year] asking if they could still come and donate car seats, but unfortunately they had already been shipped off down south,” said Norah McNaughton, a member of the non-profit and an organizer of the event.

“We decided to host it again this year to give those people an opportunity to bring those in.”

Everyone who drops off a car seat will have their name entered into a draw to win one of two grand prizes, yet to be announced.

This year, Moms, Boobs and Babies has partnered with the Healthy Family Program to offer free car seat installation inspections by a certified technician.

McNaughton says there are currently no facilities within the NWT that recycle car seats. However, as happened last year, Canadian Tire will send collected seats to an Alberta recycling facility in an empty truck already scheduled to make its way down.

“I didn’t like the idea of [my old car seat] just going to the dump, because car seats are big and there are so many of them in the North,” said McNaughton about the inspiration behind the event.

“I decided as part of my role with Moms, Boobs and Babies to see if we could get some local support to hold this drive and have a bunch of car seats sent to a recycling facility down south.”