Page 3 - Learning Store News Today

NORTHAMPTON — Since 1985, Ralph Hough Jr. and his wife, Sandra Hough, have donated to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund, continuing to do so even after relocating to Florida in the 1990s. Now, following Ralph’s death in June, Sandra is donating in the...

NORTHAMPTON — A Northampton native who became a prominent member of the city’s business community, Marcel “Mike” Meunier was the “world’s best grandfather” to his four grandchildren, according to his daughter Suzanne Rogers.But Meunier, who served as...

NORTHAMPTON — Northampton resident Rachel Markowitz used the Gazette’s Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund as an instrument to spread the spirit of giving to her two children this holiday season. As a relatively new Northampton resident, Markowitz said she reads...

NORTHAMPTON — About 20 years ago, after Patricia “Pat” Coon retired from her job as a schoolteacher, she lost her husband and was feeling rather lost. A couple of widowed women she knew invited her to join them for breakfast at a cafe — and a...

BELCHERTOWN — Around the holidays, teachers often receive little tokens of appreciation from their students. Some may receive a mug that cements their status as the “best,” while others may get a gift card to a coffee shop or office supply store. But...

EASTHAMPTON — It has been a decade since Susan Royea’s soulmate, Paul Atkinson Sr., died in 2011. Thinking back on Thursday, she remembered his love for Christmas.“He loved all the decorations and kids,” she said. “That was his holiday that he really...

WESTHAMPTON — To an onlooker, it might have seemed bizarre that Charlotte Wood chose to give her daughter, Charlene Bordonaro, a can of kidney beans as a Christmas present last year. To Wood, however, this “gag gift” had personal significance, as it...

NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Lions Club has continued a tradition more than two decades old, donating $1,500 this year to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund to provide holiday gifts for area children in need. “We never want any children to go without...

NORTHAMPTON — Susan Kohler-Gray’s son Ian Mathew Gray died in 2013 of synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, at the age of 29.“He was incredibly creative and caring,” she said. “He lived his life to the fullest.”Following his death, Kohler-Gray...

NORTHAMPTON — Even in the face of a worldwide pandemic in 2020, donors stepped up, in record-breaking fashion, to support the Gazette’s Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund.After raising $82,376 last year, hundreds of area families will again benefit during the...