Long-time volunteers earn grand marshal honors

SANDPOINT — For more than 50 years, Sandpoint Lions Club members have come up with a new theme each Fourth of July for the annual Grand Parade.

As this year’s theme is “Volunteering in Bonner County, it is only fitting that three long-time volunteers will serve as the parade’s grand marshals.

“Marcella Nelson, Joyce Spiller and Cindy Chenault were each chosen due to their years and years of volunteering in Bonner County,” said Janice Radar, Lion’s Club vice president, adding that the women have an “amazing reputation for always being there to help.”

Being in the parade will not be a new experience for any of the women, though all three said it will be an honor to do so this year as grand marshals.

Nelson, who can often be spotted with her little poodle “India” around town as well as in the local parades, has volunteered with a number of organizations since she retired 35 years ago. It was only three days after her retirement from a 37-year career with the Idaho Department of Labor that Nelson decided she needed something to do. That was when she came across an advertisement in the paper, where the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce was searching for volunteers. That began a 20-year career as a volunteer with the chamber. For nine years, Nelson managed the Ponderay Community Development Corporation as well. While she was with the chamber, she also volunteered and raised a lot of money for the Festival at Sandpoint, Pend Oreille Arts Council and the Panida Theater, among others, as she said she couldn’t remember them all in conversation. She has served as president on Festival and POAC boards in the past, and was on Panida board for about 25 years, she said. Her fundraising efforts helped rescue the Panida in the 1980s, and she also helped raise the $300,000 for the purchase of the building next to it, now the Little Panida Theater.

“You get a reputation for fundraising and everybody wants you,” Nelson said with a laugh.

She is also on the hospital advisory board for Bonner General Health, and is a member of the Bonner County Area Transportation Team, Ponderay Rotary, North Idaho Federated Republican Women and the Bonner County Republican Women. She supports Kinderhaven, the Community Assistance League, Community Cancer Services, and other organizations as well.

“I like to be busy,” Nelson said, adding that in her career at the Department of Labor she was in supervisor and manager positions for many of those years, which was “intense” work. “There are so many good causes in this town, and they all need money.”

As long-time members and volunteers with the Community Assistance League, Spiller and Chenault are in the parade every year, carrying flags on the Fourth of July. The two women spearheaded Bizarre Bazaar, CAL’s upscale resale shop, which is the primary fundraiser for the many scholarships and grants the group provides each year in support of education. Chenault joined CAL in 1996, and Spiller said she has been a member of CAL since 1993.

“I just jumped in with both feet,” Spiller said, adding that she became membership chair right away. “I have been involved ever since.”

The store was established in 2006, with Spiller and Chenault managing it for the next 10 years. It has been successful since day one, they said. This last year, the group was able to provide approximately $140,000 in grants and scholarships after overhead costs. It is the generosity of the community, they said, that keeps the store thriving and makes it possible for them to provide the funds to the educators and college-bound students.

Chenault credited much of the stores success to Spiller as well, as she came up with the idea from a friend who owned a small thrift store in Canada. Before opening the store on Church Street, Bizarre Bazaar was a sale the group had once a year. As membership grew, however, the donations grew as well.

“There was so much left over, I knew the next step had to be to open a store,” Spiller said. “It was a big obligation, because prior to that, the Community Assistance League, we raised money within our own group ... But once we opened the store, that changed dramatically.”

It took a lot of work to get the store up and running, the duo said, but the CAL group is not afraid of hard work. The idea was presented in October 2005, they said, and by March 2006 they opened the store. Chenault jumped in and was at the store every day collecting donations, Spiller said.

It is no surprise Spiller and Chenault get along so well and enjoy working together, as the two have been friends since they were 11 years old. It is not just the two of them who get along so well, however, as the other 251 members of CAL are like-minded women who want to serve the community. Spiller said it is those friendships that have kept her volunteering with CAL over all these years. The group has grown exponentially, Chenault said, as there were only about 50 members when she started. She agreed with Spiller that the friendships, in addition to serving the community, make it all worthwhile.

“CAL has given me an opportunity to meet all these wonderful ladies,” Chenault said. “And honestly, what would I do with myself? I just love volunteering.”

The Fourth of July festivities begin at 9 a.m. Thursday with the kids parade. Kids who would like to be in the parade should decorate themselves, their bikes or both, and meet at the city parking lot, Third Avenue and Church Street, between 8:30-8:45 a.m. There is no fee to participate, and each youngster will receive a goodie bag. The Grand Parade will begin at 10 a.m. While the parade route was altered last year to accommodate downtown construction, it is returning to its traditional route this year. The parade will be staged and start in the area of Fifth and Sixth avenues at Church Street. Participants will then make their way down Church to First Avenue, up to Cedar Street to Fifth Avenue, and back to Church.

The day will culminate with the Lions Club’s annual fireworks show, which will begin at dusk at City Beach.

The public can contribute to the festivities by purchasing raffle tickets from Lions Club members. Tickets are $5 each or $20 for five and, this year, the grand prize is 2019 Sea-Doo Spark personal watercraft with a trailer, a $2,000 Bonner County shopping spree for the second-place prize, and a third-place prize of $1,000 cash.

Information: 208-263-4118

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.