SPIRIT LAKE - Whether she's serving on the Spirit Lake City Council, organizing parades or soliciting funds for the community fireworks show, Joy Hensley Porter has always enjoyed being out in front.

She likes to know what's going on around the small town.

"Where else would a Seventh-day Adventist call a Catholic to find out when the Baptists are having Vacation Bible School?" Porter said. "I know."

Porter, 72, was elected to the city council last November, and served on the Lakeland School Board 25 years, from 1979 to 2004.

She volunteers with the Athol American Legion and its auxiliary, the Spirit Lake Senior Center, Museum of North Idaho, Spirit Lake's historical society and history commission and St. Joseph's Catholic Church.

"I've got my nose in a lot of people's business," she said with a smile.

If that wasn't enough being in the know, Porter also worked as a reporter/photographer for two dailies - including The Press - and seven area weeklies from 1967 to 1984.

Porter said her widespread volunteerism and involvement stems from the community lending a hand when she raised four kids on her own.

"The community has always been there for me," she said. "Therefore, I'm supportive of the community. It didn't bother me to accept help and I'm still paying it back."

Porter recalled facing the near-impossible task of getting a taxi late at night at the end of the ice storm of 1996, but the driver recognized her name and came through.

"He was the father of a girl who I'd taken a photo of at a park," she said. "That's the way people in North Idaho have been."

After serving the community in different ways, what made you decide to run for city council on top of it all last November?

A lot of people asked me to. I had been asked before, but I finally reached the stage in which I retired and my health has improved the past few years. This time I decided to prove I was insane (by running for office).

What has it been like so far to serve on the council?

Very quiet. No surprises. When I was reporting on Spirit Lake, over seven years, I missed one council meeting and that was because I was having a baby the night before and they wouldn't let me out. I was pretty familiar with what I was getting into.

The Fourth of July is rapidly approaching. You've been in front of grocery and hardware stores in Spirit Lake on weekends soliciting donations for the community fireworks show in recent years through raffles. How's that going and what drives you to do it?

It's my idea of a social life. You get to visit with people and you don't have to clean house or cook for them. My rule of thumb is that you don't ask someone if they want to buy any tickets. You ask how many. It's my thing and something I enjoy. I'll hustle anybody for a buck. The other people (of Spirit Lake Vision, which raises the funds) do other things such as make afghans and beaded bracelets and earrings. We've raised about $1,700 (for the fireworks show) and need $3,500.

Has the fundraising ever fallen short?

We did one year and therefore we canceled the Halloween party. But people usually come through.

You have been organizing Spirit Lake's Labor Day parade for nearly 40 years - that's astounding - and the Fourth of July parade for 20. What makes you keep coming back?

It's one of the few times I can tell everyone where to go and what to do - and they'll do it. And I'm an organizer. I'll keep doing it unless someone throws me out.

You've dubbed the Labor Day parade as the "world's second-shortest." What's up with that?

Several have declared that they're the shortest. Who's going to fight me for second place? It's also a way of letting people know that it's a short parade. Our actual parade route is two blocks.

You currently serve as chaplain of the Athol American Legion. Why are you active in that organization?

I spent four years, two months and seven days in the Army (during the Vietnam era) as a registered dietician. I feel strongly about being involved.

Having worked as a reporter/photographer for 17 years, you were also out in front that way, roaming the sidelines and sitting in on city meetings. Share a memorable experience from that time.

I was asked by The Press to cover Lakeland sports in 1974. Anything for a buck. But, at that point in time, I had been to only one high school football game and one basketball game. I wrote exactly what the coaches told me because I didn't have a clue. When the Post Falls basketball coach (Dave Schlotthauer) talked about boards (rebounds), I had to ask him if he meant backboards for floorboards. The coaches loved it because I couldn't play Monday morning quarterback with them.

What's something that some people may not know about you?

I did all my hell-raising away from here, nobody has anything on me.

You've obviously met a lot of people during these years. Reflect on that.

I covered a track meet in which a mother and I walked around for about three hours talking to each other. I was frantically trying to remember who she was the whole time and, when we were headed back to our cars, I told her that I gave up and asked who she was. She said that I never met her, but she knew who I was because I was always up front.