EASTHAMPTON — Sandra Eddy decided to make a donation to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund this year, knowing personally how difficult the holiday season can be on some families.
The longtime Easthampton resident made her donation in loving memory of her daughter, Tracy Rider, who died on Christmas Eve in 1981 at just 17 years old.
Rider was involved in a car accident with a driver who was driving under the influence of alcohol. Eddy hopes that by sharing her daughter’s story, she can shed some light on how dangerous driving under the influence can be.
“I plead that people do not drink and drive, however, so many feel that because they have only had a couple of drinks that they are OK,” Eddy said. “They are not.”
Prior to that Christmas Eve, Rider had already graduated early from Easthampton High School. She was a quiet girl involved in many groups who wanted to be a dress designer and was planning on going to college.
Loved by many people in her community, Rider’s funeral service had a line out the door of the funeral home that wound down the street, even in blistering snow conditions.
The holiday season was a time that Rider truly loved. Eddy remembers one Christmas Eve when her daughter was allowed to open one present early and she opened a pair of boots she had been asking her mother for nonstop.
“You should have seen her face light up when she saw that, when she saw the boots that she was always hoping that she would get,” Eddy said.
With her donation, Sandra is hoping to bring light to someone’s Christmas, knowing how much it means to have some help during difficult times.
She made it clear she’s not looking for sympathy; instead, she is just hoping to put a smile on someone’s face this holiday season.
“Even if I can help one person, it will make my Christmas,” Eddy said. “It will make up for what I’m going through.”
“I do not want to make anyone feel sorry for me, however, to just make them aware that any death due to driving drunk is a lifetime of pain for the family,” she 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; High Five Books, 141 N. Main St., Florence; The Toy Box, 201 N. Pleasant St., Amherst; Comics N More, 64 Cottage St., Easthampton; 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; Holyoke Sporting Goods Co., and 1584 Dwight St. No. 1, Holyoke.