The Charleston community has seen its fair share of hard times for locally owned businesses recently.

Within the past year, several small businesses have been forced to close their doors, the owners left wondering if perhaps they would have been able to find success in different, safer economic times.

However, McHugh’s Double Drive Thru seems to be one of the local businesses able to buck that trend. The restaurant, with locations in Charleston and Mattoon, opened in 1991.

The Charleston location is just across the street from McDonald’s. It’s easy to see how the business could have failed, considering the competition just yards away.

However, McHugh’s thrived and continued its success, becoming something of a fixture in town.

But it would appear that mere financial gain is not enough to the owner, Tom McHugh, who has recently made clear his intentions to give back to the community that has afforded the restaurant its success.

Certainly the efforts have not gone unnoticed by Carol Myers, the Eastern student who received $3,500 for tuition for the spring when she became the winner of a contest McHugh’s began advertising in the fall.

As reported in Wednesday’s edition of The Daily Eastern News, “Since McHugh’s is a privately owned company, they have full control of their budgets and how profits are spent. The money (for the contest) came straight out of the restaurant’s operating profits.”

In an age where “me first” is a mentality that seems almost mandatory for a successful business, it is a truly great thing to see a local business doing the right thing.

But McHugh isn’t stopping with the tuition contest. Instead, he has gone one step further, offering a drawing for customers where they have a chance to win $50 in grocery money. A new winner is chosen each week.

And where does the money for those awards come from? You guessed it; again it is the restaurant’s profits.

Not only is McHugh making efforts no other business in town has matched thus far, he is doing so out of his own pocket. Where many other business owners put so much of their profits into upgrading and improving their businesses, or even keeping said profits for themselves, McHugh is giving back.

We at The DEN not only applaud this type of behavior but also find ourselves proud to have this type of person present in our community.

And McHugh isn’t simply handing out cash for groceries, the money is coming in the form of gift cards for Save-A-Lot in Charleston and My Store in Mattoon. He is not only giving back to the members of the community but also making tangible efforts to help other locally owned businesses.

According to the article in Wednesday’s DEN, “McHugh said he chose these stores because they are locally owned and operated and wants to help promote other local businesses.”

“(We wanted to) do something direct and tangible for the community,” McHugh said.

And his efforts are not going unnoticed.

As stated in a previous editorial, it is comforting to know that down-home sensibilities and the type of values that one thinks of in a rural town haven’t gone away.

McHugh’s contest to give away tuition money was a tremendous gesture.

But to continue to give money for groceries as well as promote small, local businesses while doing so is going above and beyond the call of duty.

We hope that more Charleston businesses follow McHugh’s example and give back to the community.

The strength of a small town like Charleston is the feeling of safety and knowing that people think about one another and are willing to help.

McHugh’s is the type of business, owned by the type of person who makes The DEN proud to call Charleston home.