SPIRIT LAKE - Joy Porter has helped organize Spirit Lake's Labor Day parade for 35 years - and she has never lost sight of why she keeps doing it.

"It's one of the few times I can tell everyone where to go and what to do - and they'll do it," she said.

Porter has dubbed the parade the "world's second-shortest."

"Several people have claimed the shortest parade, so I decided, 'Who's going to fight me for second place?'" she said.

The parade, one of the longest-running Labor Day parades in Idaho and sponsored by Roy Racy Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1473, starts on Monday at 11 a.m. on Maine Street.

"There's about six blocks of entries and two blocks of parade," she said.

Staging for the parade will be on Third between Maine and New Hampshire at 10 a.m. There are no entry fees for the parade nor is pre-registration required.

The roots of Spirit Lake's Labor Day weekend celebration go back to the 1940s, Porter said, when the Old Timers Labor Day Picnic was held.

"A lot of people came back to town to visit their relatives and friends," she said. "But a lot of people have moved on or passed away, so we added more activities in the park so people would have something to do."

The parade complements other activities on Sunday and Monday at City Park during one of the town's biggest weekends of the year.

There will be about 30 food and craft vendors open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Fees for the booths, which are $15 per day for nonprofits and $25 for profit vendors, benefit Spirit Lake Visions, which holds community events throughout the year. Games for kids will also be held.

There will be live music on Sunday from noon to 7 p.m. and on Monday from noon to 4 p.m.

A car show will be held on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Last year's show drew about 100 vehicles.

The VFW will serve free corn on the cob on Monday starting around noon.

"It's always been a big weekend in Spirit Lake," said Jeanne Bruner of the chamber of commerce.

For more information on the parade, call Porter at 818-4792. To reserve a booth space, call Verla Reed at 623-2275.