April 23, 2026, by Tamara Filipović, Seward Folly Staff

Volunteer Spotlight #3

Photo of Shawn McDonald as a Story Time reader, courtesy of the Moose Pass Library

What is your name?

Shawn McDonald

How long have you lived in Moose Pass?

I’ve lived in the suburbs of Moose Pass for about 40 years

What is your history of volunteering in Moose Pass?

I’ve tried to do what I can for our community in a variety of ways over the years. I’ve been involved with our fundraiser, the Summer Solstice festival, during set up and tear down, running the beer garden, picking up auction donations, prepping and grilling halibut for a few years. I try and donate a bronze casting of some sort for the raffle and the ubiquitous “Other duties as assigned.” I also designed our post-beam pavilion and bandstand, and acquired and cut the steel for the brackets.

I’ve been the head pyrotechnician for our New Year’s Eve aerial party favors for as long as we’ve been doing that, 25 years maybe. I still have all my fingers, and eyes! Once a year, I also wear a red suit and white beard and talk to small people for a while, but that’s classified information.

In one sentence, please describe why you are passionate about volunteering.

We have gotten so much from living here we feel obligated to give back.

Is there a person or role model who inspired you to start volunteering? If yes, please explain.

When we moved out to mile 34-1/2, about 40 years ago, we were welcomed by the community. The first Christmas, we went to the community get-together at the school. We didn’t know anyone at that time, our daughter was a baby, but when Santa called out for local children to come up for presents, he called her name, too.

We just try to do what we can to give back and make this the type of place where people feel a bond with their neighbors, and the children who grow up here have memories that travel with them wherever life takes them.

What are some of your favorite memories or moments from volunteering in Moose Pass?

Oh that’s easy. Part of the Moose Pass Summer Solstice Festival in years past has been a raffle. I’ve always helped with drawing names of the winners. I always get kids to pull the names for the prizes, but we had a neighbor who never wanted his kids to participate in case they would draw their own name. He was gone one year, so I got one of his kids to help. When it came time to draw for the knife Virgil Campbell donated, about a 12” long pigsticker, the kid who drew it drew his own name. When he heard his own name he jumped like he got caught doing something wrong, then when it sunk in that he’d just won a huge knife he turned to look at his mom and got a grin on his face that would have made the Grinch jealous. Someone put it on YouTube and if you search for the Moose Pass Summer Solstice festival it’s still up, only lasts a couple of minutes.

What is one organization in Moose Pass that you wish more people would volunteer with?

Our local volunteer firefighters always need new help.

What is one piece of advice you’d give to someone volunteering in Moose Pass for the first time?

You get more in return than you expend in effort.