For Mary Lou Bouley and her friends, donating to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund is not a trivial pursuit.

Bouley, of Northampton, is part of a group of friends who started getting together more than four decades ago. At the time, the group included mostly teachers and others who worked in the school system, and their main focus was meeting weekly to play games, especially Trivial Pursuit (a favorite because “some people know stuff and some people know other stuff,” she laughed.)

Now, though, they’re primarily a social group — and their love for members who have died is a large part of what drives them to give to the Toy Fund.

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.

The group’s donation is in memory of eight women who had been part of the group before they died: Marilyn Drabek, Frieda Ostberg, Marilyn Parsons, Mary Crane, Mary McClure, Joan Finn and Kathleen O’Connell. A number of them were teachers; in fact, Crane had been Bouley’s own Latin teacher. Teachers, Bouley said, “understand that everybody’s not rich and can afford presents.”

After so many years of socializing and playing games with each other, the group members have bonded over more than just Trivial Pursuit. Sometimes, in fact, when the group would get together ostensibly to play a game, they’d end up socializing so much that their gameplay would be only a half-hour out of a two-hour meetup.

“We’ve known these women long enough [that] you know their stories, you know their sadness, you know their good times and their bad,” said Bouley, “because that’s what you talk about in [a] support group. I guess you’d call [the games group a] support group at times!”

By giving to the Toy Fund, they’ll be giving support to the community, too.

Bouley says that people should donate to the Toy Fund not only because children need presents, especially at this time of year, but also because “you never know what’s going to happen.”

“Help somebody else out,” she said, “because maybe someday you’re going to need to be helped out.”

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.