Kathy Guertin knows a thing or two about helping children in need.

For over 30 years, Guertin has given to the Gazette’s Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund, named after a former Gazette business manager at the Gazette and begun 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.

Guertin, who lives in Easthampton and has been giving since the 1990s, started donating to the fund in honor of Ben Ryley, a boy with special needs she once took care of at the pediatric unit of Northampton Nursing Home.

“We weren’t supposed to have favorites, but I think we all did,” Guertin said. “He was just that special kid that captured my heart when I first met him.”

Though Ryley has passed away, Guertin says she gives to the fund in order to keep his memory alive. She’s also given to the fund in honor of her deceased parents, Don and Pat Faucher, also in honor of their memory.

“Christmas season with my parents, it wasn’t always about the presents under the tree,” Guertin said. “It always having that family time and creating the memories.”

One notable Christmas was shortly after Guertin had given birth to her first child, Kraig. As a young mother, Guertin struggled to be able to afford presents for under the tree.

“We went to my parents’ house that day on Christmas morning, and my dad built him a toy box and my parents filled it with toys, so he didn’t lack on his first Christmas,” Guertin recalled. “We still have that toy box.”

Now with two children, Guertin has encouraged them to give to the toy fund, too.

“When the time comes and I’m no longer around, it’s important to keep on giving,” Guertin said. “I always like to pay it forward.”

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.

Donations can be made by mailing them to the Gazette at P.O. Box 299, Northampton 01061, or by using the online portal found at toyfund.gazettenet.com. As donations come in, the Gazette publishes donors’ names in the way they request.

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.