Hatfield Book Club hits 50-year mark with toy fund donations
Sidney F. Smith, ca. 1962. GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
By MICHAEL CONNORS
HATFIELD For the Hatfield Book Club, reading is only a small part of its membership.
Since its establishment in 1904, the club has made itself known as a civic organization focused on philanthropy within the town. And while the club boasts that its biggest fundraiser for Hatfield and its schools comes through its annual Holiday Craft Fair, the club and its members have also quietly been making donations since 1970 to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund, according to Betsy Thornton, co-president of the book club.
Donations honor Hatfield man’s ‘spirit of generosity’
Mark Neal, who died at the age of 60 in 2014, was humble about his charitable acts. After his passing, his family learned more about his yearly donations to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund. PHOTO COURTESY OF AMALIA FOURHAWKS
Mark Neal is seen at Amalia and Leonard FourHawks’ wedding in 1985. PHOTO COURTESY OF AMALIA FOURHAWKS
Published: 12/14/2020 1:45:06 PM
NORTHAMPTON – Amalia FourHawks hadn’t seen her 85-year-old husband Leonard FourHawks for more than nine months since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. Speaking through a plexiglass window at the VA Medical Center in Leeds just a few weeks ago, the two had a lot of catching up to do despite daily phone calls.
Family donates in memory of athlete, veteran, ‘force of nature’
Eileen Merullo’s baseball team, the Boston Olympets, that she played for as a 17-year-old. She is in the back row, second from left, under the name “Ellie Haydock.” SUBMITTED PHOTO
Eileen Merullo was a Red Sox fan. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Eileen raised the money to create a women’s World War II memorial in Revere. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Eileen on a family trip in 2006. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Modified: 12/11/2020 9:10:14 PM
WILLIAMSBURG The Merullo family donated to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund in memory of “Beatlebah.” That’s the nickname for Eileen Merullo, a World War II veteran who died in 2018 at the age of 95.
Cheese, crackers and Christmas: Westhampton woman gives to Toy Fund in honor of two friends lost to cancer
Mikki Nevins, right, is pictured with her late friend Joey Moynihan. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Published: 12/9/2020 7:53:11 PM
WESTHAMPTON Mikki Nevins has been donating to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund for years in honor of two friends who died of cancer.
“Both of them I’d been friends with since their children were babies,” Nevins said.
Nevins, a Westhampton resident, described how she and her friend Priscilla MacKay, of Florence, made a tradition of getting Hickory Farms cheese and crackers when they went shopping, for Christmas or another occasion, and then enjoying cheese and crackers together once they’d finished.