NORTHAMPTON — Between inflation, supply chain problems, and the pandemic, the last few years have been a big financial challenge for many people and companies. Not surprisingly, many organizations that rely on donations — food banks, social service groups, survival shelters — have seen some of those gifts fall off.
But in the Valley, there’s one group that can be counted on every holiday season to come up big for the Gazette’s Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund.
Continuing a tradition that dates back more than 20 years, the Northampton Lions Club has donated $1,500 this year to the Toy Fund, which provides holiday gifts for area children in need.
“It’s something we want to do every year,” said Philip Giers of Haydenville, a longtime member of the Lions Club. “You don’t want children to be without gifts in the holiday season.”
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 $50 to qualifying families for each child from age 1 to 14.
The Northampton Lions Club, which also started in the 1930s, has about 38 members this year, Giers noted, and it draws that membership from the city as well as area towns such as Hatfield, Greenfield, South Hadley and Williamsburg. The Northampton chapter is part of the international and nonpolitical service organization that focuses on raising money for charitable causes.
Over the years, the Northampton chapter’s projects have included helping fund a restoration of the Look Park Visitors Center, supporting city youth groups, and donating to the People’s Institute, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, and Habitat for Humanity, among other organizations.
Members stage a number of annual events to raise money, such as the recent ski and skate sale at Smith Vocational High School.
Giers said donations have been a little harder to come by in the last few years; previously, the Lions Club has been able to donate more to the Toy Fund as a consequence, he noted.
“A lot of people are struggling right now,” he said. “But you still want to do what you can to make sure kids have presents at this time of year.”
Giers says he can speak from experience about lean holiday times. One year when he was growing up, he said, he and his two brothers received one gift for Christmas, an electric train set, as that’s all the family could afford. His father warned his sons that they needed to play with the trains — and that if they didn’t, he’d return the set to the store.
“And that’s just what he ended up doing, because we weren’t using them enough,” Giers said with a laugh.
He noted that all the money the Northampton Lions Club raises stays local, whether for the Toy Fund or any other causes. “It’s important to give back to the community, to remember how fortunate many of us are, especially at this time of year,” he said.
To be eligible for the Toy Fund, families must live in any Hampshire County community except Ware, or in the southern Franklin County towns of Deerfield, Sunderland, Whately, Shutesbury and Leverett, and in Holyoke in Hampden County.
The following stores are participating 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; Plato’s Closet, 1472 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, 134 Main St., Greenfield; Holyoke Sporting Goods Co., and 1584 Dwight St. No. 1, Holyoke.
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.