PELHAM — In 1982, Don Clark went door-to-door to recruit 26 people for the newly formed Pelham Lions Club in hopes of bringing town residents together.
Clark knew that the small town Lions chapter would never be large, a Gazette story from Sept. 30, 1982 reported, but the members brought enthusiasm. For the ensuing 40 years, the service club raised money for large print books in the library, Thanksgiving dinners for low-income families and toy vouchers from the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund.
The club disbanded in 2024 after numbers dwindled. However, 40-year-member James Burrows continues to honor the hard work of the club by donating to the Toy Fund in its honor.
“The other the Lions Clubs in the state said it (Pelham Lions Club) wouldn’t last five years, and we made it 42 before we dissolved,” Burrows said. “It showed them what a little small town with great people can do.”
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 $65 to qualifying families for each child from age 1 to 14.
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.
Burrows joined the Lions Club after receiving the club’s Eugene LaValle Memorial scholarship in 1984. He quickly took a role in the yearly chicken barbecues, town fair dime tosses and turkey raffles. Burrows served as club president just before moved to Texas in 1996, but he continued on as an associate member.
“It’s actually very rewarding to be involved with the Lions or any service club,” Burrows said, “because of the rewards you see happen, and how they help out your communities, which you don’t always see behind (closed) doors.”
The funds raised at these yearly events sponsored life-changing opportunities for Pelham youth. Burrows recalls sending one student to perform in the Massachusetts Music Educators Association All State Concert Band. The club also sponsored one student to the state’s Lions Youth Speech Competition. Former Pelham Lions Club president Sharyn Wentworth remembers buying a family Thanksgiving dinner for a low-income family each year.
“The goal was the help people, and we did that,” Wentworth said.
Other times, the Lions Club provided municipal departments and local nonprofits with the needed resources. The Pelham Fire Department, Police Department and Amherst Survival Center were regular benefactors.
The club began donating to the Toy Fund shortly after Burrows joined. He recalls founding member Ted Slate strongly advocating for the cause that benefits families across Hampshire County.
At the time, Burrows saw the Toy Fund as another way to uplift Pelham families. Years later, he would see the impact of the program himself; one of Burrow’s former high school classmates received Toy Fund money to purchase gifts for her young daughter.
“I enjoyed just being out there and actually helping, helping do good for the town of Pelham, making a name for the town of Pelham,” Burrows said.
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.