If you slept in this morning after stuffing yourself with turkey last night, you weren’t alone. But that’s not what members of the Habert family did today. All 5 of them volunteered outside the Ronald McDonald House in Joplin raking leaves.

The charity that helps families with sick kids started in 1974. Today, there are more than 400 houses and 270 family rooms in hospitals worldwide.

Ronald McDonald House entities across the country have been merging, and the trend reached Houston earlier this year.

The Ronald McDonald house works around the clock with a dedicated team to serve families dealing with the unthinkable. Some volunteers even continuing to cook m

The tradition, begun in 1997, has stayed strong for 25 years (there were two years when the COVID pandemic required that the dinner be catered), because it’s hard to imagine celebrating Thanksgiving in any other way. The Wilsons lived in Rochester for 50 years, but now live in western South Dakota.