A mood of holiday cheer prevailed at last week’s monthly business meeting of the Erie County Highway Superintendents Association.

The men who usually talk about budget constraints, road paving, snowplowing and countless other services had a different mission in their sights this time: kids.

November’s monthly meeting always is about children — specifically, those in Buffalo’s Women & Children’s Hospital, to which the organization has made a Christmas holiday donation of toys and cash annually for the past 10 years.

The entrance fee for the luncheon meeting at Colden Lakes Resort on Heath Road was a toy for a boy or girl and/or $10. Most of the county’s 25 highway superintendents were there, along with some life members and honorary members, plus representatives of some of the 90 vendors who do business with their departments. Most brought toys and cash.

The pile of toys — which the donors buy out of their own pocket — had a decidedly “boy” flavor, with lots of trucks. No exact count of cash donations was available, but the final tally appeared to approach $500.

The toy-cash drive was suggested to the organization by vendor Cynthia Jerge, owner of Richardson Signs in Boston. “No matter whether rich or poor, a sick child is someone you want to take care of,” said Jerge, who also works for Valley Fab & Equipment of Boston and Buffalo Crushed Stone.

Staffing the check-in table, Jerge greeted nearly everyone by name, doling out receipts and name tags as the cash and toys piled up.

In the absence of Francis J. “Joe” Gernatt of Collins, the organization’s president, the first and second vice presidents — Ron Maggs of Eden and Frederick J. Piasecki Jr. of Orchard Park — ran the meeting, which rotates among the towns. Colden Highway Superintendent Edward Wochensky was the host for this month’s meeting.

Maggs and Piasecki echoed the feelings of the group: “It feels good to help a child.”

Two Women & Children’s Hospital staffers — Lisa A. La- Trovato, coordinator of Children’s Miracle Network, and Donna Walentynowicz, development associate — agreed.

“The hospital is only as strong as the community that supports it,” LaTrovato said, adding that many Erie County organizations and individuals assist the facility throughout the year.

Walentynowicz said the donated toys are used “where the need is most” and that members of the hospital’s child life department, which “works with all the kids on a daily basis and oversees the playrooms, know what’s needed where.”

Some donated toys may go to the playrooms to replace worn ones or augment the supply on hand.

Children in the hospital at Christmas will receive a toy. Cash donations are used for various projects.

Last year’s donation from the highway superintendents was used towards the purchase of a $1.5 million CT scanner, one of just four in the area, La- Trovato said.