NORTHAMPTON — A surge in donations has pushed the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund close to its goal as the year draws to a close.

Dozens of donors stepped up to bring the fund’s year-to-date total to $57,814.26, Gazette business manager Patti Wasilewski reported Thursday.

“It’s possible we’ll get some more,” she said. “We’re still a little shy of our goal of $60,000.”

Last year’s total was $60,092.77. The latest list of donors will appear in Tuesday’s Gazette.

The Toy Fund was boosted in recent days by some large donations, including $2,578 from the Dec. 15 Messiah sing at Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst, $810 from Northampton Pediatrics and three $500 gifts, two of them anonymous.

Donations large and small make up the Toy Fund each year, and the Gazette tells the stories behind some of them.

This year, we learned of Carolyn “Sissie” Horrigan’s donation in memory of her late husband, John, the neighborhood Santa Claus who brought presents to children and read “The Night Before Christmas” to them.

Still showing group spirit after all these years, the “Hamp High” class of 1964 gave in memory of friends and classmates no longer living.

And James Gallagher and the rest of the kitchen staff at the Edward P. Boland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Leeds raised $480 — a record for the regular donors — from returning bottles and cans collected over the year for the 5-cent redemption.

Donations to the Toy Fund, named after a former business manager at the Gazette, are still being accepted online or through the mail.

The fund began in 1933 to help families in need during the Depression. It distributes vouchers worth $50 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.