What do the top employers in each of North Idaho's five northern counties have in common?

Each is filled with people who make giving back a way of life, with volunteers who do everything from support patients at local hospitals like Kootenai Health and Bonner General to students getting their first taste of the working world while exploring a career in the medical field.

At Kootenai Health, volunteers can be any age from 14 or older. Typically, volunteers need to commit to six months and 100 service hours; most volunteers work an average of four hours per week.

At Bonner General, volunteers help with everything from keeping the Healing Garden looking its best and blooming all season long to helping in the Emergency Department or sitting with patients.

Both hospitals are among the top employers in Kootenai and Bonner counties.

Countless employees at the Lake Pend Oreille, Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Boundary County, Kellogg and Wallace school districts belong to the Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions clubs. They are Elks, Eagles and Masons. They raise money for local organizations and volunteer their time.

Employees at Litehouse, Hagadone Hospitality, Silverwood and Walmart help at and donate to local food banks so neighbors don't go hungry; raise money for Christmas drives to ensure every child has the merriest of Christmases; and help the United Way assist local nonprofits with chores and events every year on its Day of Action.

If Salvation Army volunteers need a place to ring the organization's iconic bell, or local firefighters are seeking donations to attend the annual Firefighter Stair Climb in Seattle, or local Girl Scouts need a place to sell cookies, Super 1 Foods, Safeway and Walmart are among the first businesses to welcome the groups to set up a spot at the front of the store to raise money or sell sweet treats to shoppers.

When the Kaniksu Land Trust was raising money to buy the historic sledding hill where early skiers and generations of sledders gathered, Schweitzer stepped up. The Sandpoint-based resort donated 50 chairlift chairs from the beloved Musical Chairs chairlift when it was replaced by a high-speed quad lift, allowing the land trust to sell and raffle the chairs to raise money to buy the 48-acre site.

When the Kellogg High School football team needed basic equipment, uniforms and training resources, Dave Smith Motors donated $8,000 toward the effort, helping ensure the Wildcat players had what they needed to take the field.

The Coeur d'Alene Tribe consistently donates to the Plummer-Worley Joint School District; among its most recent donations was a $200,000 contribution. The Tribe has a long and consistent record of investing in education. Over the past decade, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe has donated more than $1.7 million to the Plummer-Worley district and more than $37 million to education.

Caring workers. Top businesses and governments. A region that is equal to no other.

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Editor's note: Information used in this story can be found in Hagadone Communications' annual Book of Lists.