The members of the McDonough family are pros at volunteering. Through opportunities at their church and the 4-H Club, the five McDonoughs have become highly active within the Northfield community.

By volunteering as a family three or four times a year, the McDonoughs have subconsciously instilled a volunteer ethic in their children. “It’s the things we’ve chosen to belong to as a family, like our church,” Tammy McDonough said. “There’s just that opportunity to volunteer, so you do.”

Every year the McDonoughs participate in the CROP Hunger Walk, an annual event that raises money and awareness for global hunger. Participants in last year’s walk raised over $30,000 for the cause.

Through their 4-H Club, the McDonoughs also have cleaned a section of a highway, have cared for a cemetery and sing at a nursing home during Christmas.

The family has become so infused with the value of volunteering that the children often volunteer on their own. Through their church, they have individually participated in several opportunities, including Feed My Starving Children.

Additionally, the McDonoughs donated their van to the Community Action Center, a gift that affected the McDonough children as much as it affected the recipient. “The kids thought that was just the coolest thing that someone else was going to get to have a car because we didn’t need to have our car anymore,” McDonough said.

More recently, the McDonough volunteer ethic has surfaced in the Goods for Good Sale. Karyn, the family’s middle child, has signed up to sell her and her sibling’s old toys and books.

When some neighbors mentioned the possibility of having a neighborhood garage sale, Karyn immediately expressed interest in selling her old toys. The McDonoughs were already planning on donating some things to their church, which is participating in the Goods for Good sale, so Tammy told Karyn that she could sell her toys in that sale.

Coordinated by 5th Bridge, the Goods for Good sale is a city-wide garage sale May 1 – 3 in which participants donate 50 percent of their profits to a charity of their choice. When Tammy told Karyn about donating part of the money she earned, the 11-year-old immediately said, “Oh, I’d like to do the food shelf.”

Through their church, Karyn has been to the Northfield Food Shelf several times to stock the shelves. This volunteering made a huge impact on her, according to Tammy McDonough.

As soon as she got permission from her mother to hold the sale in their garage, Karyn began convincing her siblings to donate the toys and books they no longer use. “She cleaned house on all their toys, and talked about what they didn’t need and want,” Tammy McDonough said.

Karyn donated $12 to the Food Shelf, which was half the the money she raised through her toy and book sale.