NORTHAMPTON — Every holiday season, Joe’s Cafe designs a special ornament to sell to customers in support of the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund.
This year and in recent ones, the restaurant’s owner, Meaghan Sullivan, has designed the ornament. “Sometimes I consult an ornament committee,” she said, which is made up of “just a couple of friends and regulars.”
The ornament’s colors change each year, but the design is always the same — a picture of Joe’s with the date and a holiday message. Color choice can be critical to the fundraising effort’s success.
“Sometimes when we get ugly colors they end up in the basement,” Sullivan said. “There are some years I whiff on the color combination.”
Sullivan said that after several decades of the tradition, “We’ve kind of run out of colors and combinations after all these years. We had to get creative.”
This year, the ornament is a clear ball stuffed with shiny silver ribbons, with green writing on the outside that says, “Season’s Greetings.” Sullivan ordered about 100 ornaments this season and has sold half of them. “I must have done well with my design. We’re flying through them,” Sullivan said.
Joe’s is selling the ornaments at the cafe on Market Street for a suggested donation of $7. The cafe donates by paying for the ornaments, and all sales go to the fundraiser. From sales last year, Joe’s was able to donate $621 in January that will go toward this year’s Toy Fund.
Named after a former business manager at the Gazette, the Toy Fund began in 1933 to help families in need during the Depression. Today, the fund distributes vouchers worth $40 to families for each child from age 1 to 14. Eligible families must live in any Hampshire County community except Ware, in the southern Franklin County towns of Deerfield, Sunderland, Whately, Shutesbury, and Leverett, and in Holyoke in Hampden County.
The initiative at Joe’s started after an employee died.
“Back in the ‘80s my dad, his name is Jack Sullivan, and his business partner, Gerry Rainville, had a woman working for them tragically pass away in a house fire. She had a couple of young children. They did a fundraiser for the kids around Christmastime to buy the kids toys.”
It later evolved into selling the Joe’s ornaments and since then, it’s become a tradition for some customers. “People tell me they have a separate tree for every one,” Sullivan said.
It may be the 30th year of ornament sales — a 2007 Gazette article reported that sales started in 1989 — but Sullivan isn’t sure exactly when the initiative started. Her family had a tree exclusively of Joe’s ornaments from every year of the sales, but 10 years ago, the family basset hound, Tyler, ran into it and smashed all the ornaments.
“I won’t forget it,” she said. They have since restarted their collection, Sullivan said, but without the original set, she can’t find the first ornament and the year printed on it.
18 Degrees Family Services for Western Massachusetts at 59 Interstate Drive in West Springfield verifies families’ eligibility and the Gazette covers costs associated with the drive, freeing all donations to fund the vouchers.
The following stores are participating this year: A2Z Science and Learning Store, 57 King St., Northampton; Deals & Steals, 1 Pearl St., Northampton; JCPenney, 367 Russell St., Hadley (store only); The Toy Box, 201 N. Pleasant St., Amherst; Target, 367 Russell St. Hadley (store only); Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters, 227 Russell St., Hadley; Odyssey Bookshop, 9 College St., Village Commons, South Hadley; Wilson’s Department Store, 258 Main St., Greenfield; World Eye Bookshop & Magical Child, 134 Main St., Greenfield; Holyoke Sporting Goods Co. 1584 Dwight St. #1, Holyoke; Children’s Museum at Holyoke, 444 Dwight St., Holyoke.
Donations to the Toy Fund may be dropped off at or mailed to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, P.O. Box 299, Northampton, MA, 01061, or made through Gazettenet at www.gazettenet.com.
Checks should be made payable to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund.
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.