NORTHAMPTON — Whenever she dropped by Serio’s Market, 7-year-old Edie Sternal-Adams would put a quarter in its gumball machine and watch as it dispensed a large piece of colorful candy into her hands.
Not only was the gumball machine her favorite feature at the former neighborhood market, say her parents, Jen Adams and Jeff Sternal, but the family appreciated that proceeds from gumball sales were benefiting local veterans.
So when Serio’s closed last Saturday, and held a tag sale aimed at selling off unwanted items, the couple was happy to pay $20 to purchase the gumball machine and give it a new home.
Unbeknownst to them, though, the machine is part of a partnership between a Manchester, New Hampshire vending company, which has possibly 40 other machines around the city, and the Veterans’ Services Department at Northampton City Hall, which gets a small cut of the proceeds.
After learning of the veteran connection, the parents on Thursday brought the machine to the veterans department, and ordered a new, classic-style gumball machine from Amazon to match one that was in the dining room of their State Street home for the past several days.
“We don’t want to have something that doesn’t belong to us,” Adams said.
The issues surrounding the gumball machine came to light when retired veterans service agent, Robert P. Cahillane saw a photo in the Gazette of the family leaving Serio’s with the candy dispenser Saturday.
“We would appreciate getting it returned,” said Cahillane, in an interview with the Gazette earlier this week.
In 1994, Cahillane had arranged for the agency to receive a small share of the gumball sales each year.
Cahillane retired in 2003, but he notified his successor, Steven Connor, about the situation. Connor, director of Central Hampshire Veterans Services, which includes Northampton, said receipts from the gumball machine have been a modest source of cash.
“It’s an ongoing small amount of money that is useful,” Connor said. “It goes into an account to assist veterans with emergency situations, and we have been able to give money out of that account.”
“Small” is the right description for the donation. Over the past six years, the city’s machines have generated about $100 annually. Connor said his department last received a check for $100 in June 2016 from L.K. Manning, the vendor in New Hampshire.
If 40 machines are operating, that means each machine contributes about $2.50 to the cause each year.
The program started 23 years ago, when Cahillane had a logo for the Northampton Veterans Department replace the emblem of the Kiwanis Club of Northampton on the machines. The Kiwanis Club’s membership had been dwindling.
In 1994, the vending company owner, Leo F. Manning, Jr., told the Gazette he had about 20 gumball machines in Amherst that benefited that town’s Lions Club, and double that number in Northampton serving the Kiwanis Club.
Connor could not say this week who owns the candy machines, but that 25 percent of their sales were intended to go to the veterans office. The Gazette could not locate Manning’s company or determine if it still exists.
After the latest episode involving the machine at Serio’s Market, Connor said he plans to review the gumball program. “What we’re really trying to do is reach the vending machine dealer and find out what’s the future of these,” Connor said. “It was all done a long time ago and there’s no contract.”
Similar gumball machines are still scattered throughout the city, such as at Memorial Hall, Fitzwilly’s restaurant and at Northampton City Hall. There, at the main entrance, one features large gumballs in all colors of the rainbow, while the other holds various gummy candies.
The text on the machines indicates that proceeds from each quarter deposited into the machine will benefit local veterans, with signs reading “Don’t forget the vet” and “Thank you for thinking of us.”
But Connor said he will need to have a conversation with the vendor about the arrangement. “We’re going to have to make it more solid,” Connor said.
Serio’s owner Gary Golec said he was unaware that the machine was one of the items sold Saturday, and had he or co-owner Jaimie Golec been overseeing the sale of the store’s memorabilia, it wouldn’t have left the store.
“I didn’t see it go out the door,” Golec said, speaking as he continued to clear out Serio’s Thursday morning. “It wasn’t ours to sell.”
Sternal said the tag sale was a “free for all” of items being shown and then sold. When he offered $20 for the gumball machine, it was accepted by one of the employees, making his daughters ecstatic, even with the disappointment surrounding the store’s closing.
Though Adams returned the machine, she would like to keep the small signs inside the gumball machine’s windows, one that advertises Serio’s, the other that mentions the veterans. Adams said her father is a veteran, which gave added meaning to the machine.
Adams said in an email that she and Sternal are satisfied with how the matter was resolved.
“I’m totally satisfied,” Adams said. “Serios made some money. The vets get their machine. We’ve now ordered our own gumball machine from Amazon. Everything’s hunky-dorey.”
Connor said the veterans department will make amends to the family.
He also said there remains uncertainty about the gumball machines, including all their locations in the city, how often they are filled and money collected from them.
“We still don’t know how many machines are out there,” Connor said.
In fact, Connor said he can recall two being turned in at City Hall that were no longer being filled. While one is now likely in storage, Connor said the other was broken and thrown away.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
