Doing the right thing is a good thing

On Monday evening Zachary Endreson, 11 and Michael Williams, 9, of Post Falls were playing outside when they found a wallet on the sidewalk. The wallet contained an Idaho ID card, Social Security card, credit cards and nearly $800 in cash. The boys ran home and gave it to Zachary's father. And here's where the story brings a smile ... he told the pair that the right thing to do was to call the police and turn it in so it could be returned to the man who lost it - and it was.

As much as we'd all like to think that doing the right thing is the norm, it often isn't. Zachary and Michael have learned that honesty and integrity are much more important than keeping or taking something that belongs to someone else.

Kudos to the boys and to the grownups in their lives, Jeff Endreson and Michael's parents Samantha and Brian Wilhelm for the feel-good story of the week!

I remember the first Father's Day after my own father died. It was 2005 and I felt unmoored and adrift in a world that was no longer occupied by my daddy. I was 53 years old.

In recent months there have been tragic losses in our community, young fathers and untimely death. Crime, car crashes, heart attacks, drowning and illness claimed too many. I cannot imagine being a young child and suffering such a loss, or how my life would have been different without the man who thought I hung the moon and called me his brown-eyed baby girl long after I was a grandmother.

When 10-year-old Kiahna Kirk stepped up to help out a young boy she didn't know but whose father everyone around the country came to know, I was touched by her empathy. The lemonade stand that Kiahna set up to raise money for Sgt. Greg Moore's family after he was killed in the line of duty was such a Norman Rockwell moment.

Three weeks later the unthinkable happened when Kiahna's own father, Jeff Kirk was killed in a car crash. It takes your breath away to imagine the heartbreak. But again our communities are stepping up and following the example of a child. The Coeur d'Alene Police Department will hold a lemonade sale at Coeur d'Alene City Park on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. with all proceeds benefitting the Kirk family. At the same time the Post Falls Police will set up a lemonade stand in front of the police department on Polston Avenue for the family.

My husband and no doubt a lot of men are looking for an epic gearhead on Father's Day weekend. Car d'Lane Friday night cruise and Saturday swap meet and show, collector car auction at The Coeur d'Alene Resort and North American Big Rigs - yes, racing semi trucks at Stateline Speedway. On Father's Day the Hauser Lake Lions Club is cooking up breakfast at the firehouse from 7 a.m. to noon, Spirit Lake hosts the annual Big Back In lawn mower drag races on Maine Street at 11 a.m. and the Post Falls Community Volunteers host Kelly Hughes for a free concert to celebrate summer at Q'emiln Park at 3 p.m.

Happy birthday today to Raydeane Owens, Susan Reilly, Vicky Houle, Brenda Gabriel, Jesse Bishop, Leigh Cossette, Jennifer Smith and Dana Scholwinski. Tomorrow, Jim Hammond, Wanda McLean, Katy Meeks and Sean Watson will celebrate.

On Friday, Jim Morrison, Jake Capaul (30!), Jennifer Smock, Kelly Gwinn (60!), Doug Harwood, Jerry Riggs, Mel Swatzenberg, Paul Ivie,Genia Wortman, Lauren Hoffman, Sue Shibley, Bill Cope, Twyla Cope and Joey Flood will blow out the candles. Kristen Enders, Christi Fleischman (40!), Daniel Davis, Sherin Diehl, Mark Appleby and Eva Jones are getting their party on Saturday.

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.

June 22 birthdays belong to Joe Butler, Lynne Hamm, Camille Lang, Scott Shepperd, Mike Saunders and Caitlin Parmentier. On Tuesday Dawn Forest, Nancy Nick, Lynne Hammond and Carly Cline will put on their party hats.

Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. 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.