One last whistle blow

POST FALLS - Kerri Thoreson is hanging up her antique English police whistle after 25 years as the Post Falls parade director.

Her last day of buzzing around the parade, ironing out any kinks and, perhaps most importantly, ensuring the event starts on time, will be Saturday during the Post Falls Festival.

"I'll have to find another excuse to wear and blow a whistle," she said. "People don't do things for this long unless it's been fun."

The parade will start at 11 a.m. and run east from Frederick to Idaho streets on Seltice Way. About 80 entries are expected for the hour-long parade.

Thoreson said no one has stepped up to direct the parade, but she is confident that someone will once the word gets out.

"I know that the parade is important to this community and that there is somebody out there who loves a parade as much as I do," she said. "I have no doubt that the parade will continue on."

She said it's simply time to step down.

"To put it in perspective, Bert (Thoreson's husband) and I were in our 30s when we started," she said. "No one can step up if you don't step aside."

Thoreson said she and Bert, who has been assisting her throughout the years with the parade, were going to have last year be their last year, but something just didn't seem right.

"I thought that, if we step down, we at least have to do it on the 25th year, not the 24th," she said.

Thoreson said a strong core group of volunteers - including Steve Bruno, Sam Clevenger, Skip Hissong and Terry Werner - have made organizing the parade a well-oiled machine. Several others have also stepped up in recent years.

Thoreson said she has organized the entries in the weeks leading up to the parade and the parade committee has met for breakfast the day of the parade to discuss the division of labor.

While some parades have stopped allowing entrants to throw candy to spectators for safety reasons, Post Falls has continued the tradition. About 2,000 pounds of sweets are distributed each year.

"(Candy) keeps that small-town feel to it," said Thoreson, adding that the rules are strictly enforced: Only adults can throw the candy, all candy must reach the curb and no kids are allowed into the street to pick up candy.

While Thoreson has rolled with the punches on many aspects of the parade, some parts are non-negotiable.

"The parade has never been late to start," she said. "The lineup crew knows that, at the stroke of 11 a.m., I blow the whistle and ready or not, we put on a parade."

Until 2013, when the Post Falls Festival changed to a July date, the parade was held the first weekend in June so the high school marching band could participate.

Thoreson said the parade has generated a lot of memories.

In the late '90s, there was a law enforcement conference in Post Falls, so former Police Chief Cliff Hayes arranged for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to appear in the parade.

"The day before, we found out their horses had been held at the border, but the officers came without them and we became the only parade I know of that featured the Royal Canadian Un-Mounted Police," Thoreson said.

In one of her first parades, there was a huge convention of Shriners taking place at Red Lion Templin's Hotel the weekend of the festival, so they signed up for the parade on a single entry. The morning of the parade at least 100 Shriners with at least 20 floats and motorcycles arrived at the line up.

"We lined them up on side streets and just had a parade within the parade," she said.