NORTHAMPTON — For Freda Brackley, donating to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund is just another way to keep the memory of her husband, Randy Gigliotti, and her step-son, Josh Gigliotti, going.
Brackley remembers the summertime parties her family would hold in the backyard, where Randy and Josh — who were both guitarists — played together. The two were both “generous and playful,” she remembers — and while Randy and his son Josh were fine guitarists, the younger Gigliotti was a “particularly awesome” picker.
“It kind of fits both of their spirits to think about giving to children,” said Brackley, of Williamsburg.
Brackley has been sending donations to the Toy Fund for years — even before the deaths of Josh in 2011 and Randy in 2018. She said she donates to the Toy Fund because “it’s local and relatively direct. The benefit goes pretty directly to the kids who are intended to benefit.”
“It just always seemed like a sweet, local, worthy cause at Christmas when you’re thinking about giving and being generous,” she said.
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 ages 1 to 14. Last year, the fund collected around $53,000 for area children, compared to $61,000 in 2018.
Michael Moses, publisher of Newspapers of New England’s Massachusetts publications, said that since 1933, the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund has helped provide joy to children in need around the holidays.
“We are proud to continue to host this initiative, especially in light of the pandemic-related challenges our families face each day,” Moses said. “Its success is a testament to the giving nature of our readers, our advertisers, and the communities we serve.”
Brackley said Josh struggled with substance use disorder and died at the age of 30 in November 2011. Randy died at the age of 63 from a rare neurodegenerative disease called progressive supranuclear palsy, or PSP, she said.
Josh was only 10 or 11 years old when Brackley first met him. She said Randy helped to teach Josh guitar, but that Josh was “very, very diligent and studied very hard” at his instrument. Brackley said she thought of Josh when one of his early guitar heroes, Eddie Van Halen, died earlier this year on Oct. 6.
“One of the first things he set himself to learn was Eddie Van Halen’s ‘Eruption,’” she said. “Which … (is) very difficult with the tapping and everything. Josh could do that.”
For the Toy Fund, 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.
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 accepting the vouchers this year: A2Z Science and Learning Store, 57 King St., Northampton; Blue Marble/Little Blue, 150 Main St., Level 1, Northampton: Deals & Steals, 1 Pearl St., Northampton; High Five Books, 141 N. Main St., Florence; The Toy Box, 201 N. Pleasant St., Amherst; Once Upon A Child, 1458 Riverdale St., West Springfield; Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters, 227 Russell St., Hadley; Odyssey Bookshop, 9 College St., Village Commons, South Hadley; The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 125 W. Bay Road, Amherst; World Eye Bookshop & Magical Child Toy Store, 134 Main St., Greenfield; Holyoke Sporting Goods Co., 1584 Dwight St. No. 1, Holyoke.
Donations to the Toy Fund may be mailed to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, P.O. Box 299, Northampton MA, 01061, or made online at www.gazettenet.com. Checks should be made payable to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund.