Some people give to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund out of support for the families it serves, while others do so out of memory of a loved one. Susan Kohler-Gray falls into the latter camp.

Kohler-Gray, who now lives in Portland, Maine, but who lived in Northampton for 35 years, gives to the fund in memory of her son, Ian, who graduated from Northampton High School before going to study at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. While he was still a child, Ian always encouraged his mother to donate to the Toy Fund.

“He started wanting me to do this when he was 10 years old. He liked to listen to the radio and that’s where he heard about it,” Kohler-Gray recalled. “He cared very deeply about people, and his friends and family cared deeply about him.”

After getting a degree in industrial design, Ian moved to California to pursue his dreams. He became a successful footwear designer, working for skateboarding shoe company Vans, eventually getting his own line of shoes. An avid surfer, he also designed and made his own surfboards.

But Ian’s career would be tragically cut short. He died in 2013 at the age of 29 from synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that develops in the body’s soft tissue. Despite his illness, he managed to live his life to the fullest to the very last, marrying his wife, Katia, just a month before he died.

Though his mother now lives in Maine, to be closer to her other son, Daniel, she continues the tradition of giving to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund, which distributes to families in the Gazette’s coverage area, in honor of her son, as well as the city that raised him.

“It’s important for me to keep his memory alive, especially for the people that knew him in Northampton,” she said. “It’s an important way to show support for the community, the community that helped raise my sons. Both of them had a good childhood and we want to remember the people who live in that community.”

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.

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; World Eye Bookshop, 134 Main St., Greenfield; Holyoke Sporting Goods Co., and 1584 Dwight St. No. 1, Holyoke.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.