It takes a village of more than 3,000 volunteers to make Ironman Coeur d'Alene happen.

I noticed some of the more interesting volunteer opportunities: wetsuit peeler, body marker and finish line catcher on the sign-up site. I volunteered with Doping Control last year.

So this year, since one of my favorite parts of the Ironman day is being at the finish line for the last few hours of the race when the final competitors are gutting it out to cross the line and hear their names announced as an Ironman, I'll be a finish line catcher this year.

I'm signed up for the 9 p.m. to midnight shift on June 29 but that won't keep me from my other favorite part, being out on the lake with my camera when the swimmers hit the water at city beach early that morning for the first leg of the event.

If you've never volunteered, I highly recommend it. Check out ironmancda.com to see where and how you can get involved.

Have you visited the draft horse barn at the North Idaho Fair in the past four decades? There's a good chance you've crossed paths with Sy Thompson.

The World War II veteran started that section of the fair to showcase the gentle giants. He and his wife, Avis, raised their family along with Arabians, Percherons and Polled Herefords on their farm in Post Falls.

Sy, who is former NIC basketball coach Jared Phay's grandpa and biggest fan, recently turned 90 years young and will be celebrated by friends and family at an open house Saturday from 1:30-3:30 p.m. at Generations in Rathdrum. Come say hello and hear some interesting stories of our community from a man who has lived a lot of life.

Post Falls dentist Dr. Erin Elliott and her husband, Thomas, were visiting Beijing recently and noticed a familiar name on the caps of those who were maintaining the grounds of The Forbidden City. Erin snapped a photo with one of the men in his Jacklin/Simplot cap. Small world indeed.

My husband - and no doubt a lot of men in town - had an epic gearhead weekend. Car d'Lane cruise, swap meet and show, classic car auction, North American Big Rigs - yes, racing semi-trucks at Stateline Speedway and the Big Back-In lawn mower drag races in Spirit Lake. Bert's brothers, Tim and Richard, visiting from North Dakota, were impressed with the variety of activities in a single weekend and summer hasn't even officially started!

Happy birthday today to Jim Hammond, Wanda McLean and Sean Watson. The same tomorrow to Jim Morrison, Jennifer Smock, Kelly Gwinn, Doug Harwood, Jerry Riggs, Mel Swatzenberg, Paul Ivie, Genia Wortman, Lauren Hoffman, Sue Shibley, Bill Cope, Twyla Cope and Joey Flood.

On Friday, Kristen Enders, Daniel Davis, Sherin Diehl, Mark Appleby and Eva Jones will celebrate.

Born on June 21, Wayne Newby, Lynda Pym, David Wold, Shirley Bade, Randy Watkins, Kelly Rice, L.C. Schell and Stephen Larson are marking their birthdays and the official first day of summer.

Sunday birthdays belong to Joe Butler, Lynne Hamm, Camille Lang, Scott Shepperd, Mike Saunders and Caitlin Parmentier. On Monday Fun Day, Dawn Forest, Nancy Nick, Lynne Hammond and Carly Cline will put on their party hats.

There's a big crowd of birthdays on Tuesday as Jim Reynolds, Kathy Bush, Kimi Coles, Rhonda Ellis (40!), John Phelps, Sara Wegner (Sweet 16!) and Laura Lahr take another trip around the sun.

Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. She was voted Best Local Writer for 2013 by the readers of the North Idaho Business Journal. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.