Colleen McGoughWood

A priest was present in the delivery room the day Colleen McGough–Wood’s grandson Jacob was born. Jacob, diagnosed via ultrasound with severe disabilities, was not expected to make it. “Then he came out just beautiful and fighting for everything he could,” says McGough– Wood with a smile.

Jacob’s birth fanned a flame of volunteerism already burning in McGough–Wood. The oldest of five children in one branch of the prodigious McGough family, she represents the fifth generation of Twin Cities McGoughs to work for the McGough Companies construction firm. As such, she was already active in the many causes supported by the family company, among them Habitat for Humanity, Feed My Starving Children, and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. “The McGoughs are seriously tremendously generous people,” she says. “That’s the history of this company—and this family.” Indeed, a conversation with McGough–Wood is peppered with references to the charitable work of her parents, grandparents, and numerous uncles and aunts.

Following her grandson’s birth, McGough–Wood attended a benefit concert for the Pacer Center, a nonprofit organization that supports children with disabilities and their families. She learned of the group through her daughter’s obstetrician, whom she brought to the concert as a thank-you for his support throughout the difficult pregnancy. Shortly thereafter, Pacer’s executive director called and asked whether she would contribute some time to the organization’s corporate fundraising committee.

McGough–Wood took the invitation and ran with it. In the last three years, she has joined several other Pacer boards and committees, helped raise nearly $100,000 in corporate donations, and recruited many volunteers and committee members. She has also chaired (three times) the same benefit concert that initially drew her in, organizing one of the charitable community’s most impressive silent auctions and helping to feature Lionel Richie, Michael Bolton, and other big-name performers.

McGough–Wood remains in awe of the many staffers and volunteers who run the Pacer Center, and she, her family, and the now four-year-old Jacob also remain active as Pacer beneficiaries. She explains, “I think sometimes families are just touched in order to do something for the community.”