DOWAGIAC — Labor Day marks the return of school and the dwindling of time spent in the sun. For Sister Lakes, it marks the final weekend before some businesses close up shop and prepare for the off-season. Other businesses will shorten hours and be open fewer days during the week. Labor Day brings clearance events, sales and goodbyes as the grand finale for a four-month season of boating, water sports, lunching and visiting wraps up for the region.

Right on the water’s edge of Round Lake, Driftwood Summer Shop, will be celebrating the end of its summer season on Labor Day. The owners, Allison and Daniel LaFond, are the niece and nephew-in-law of Lorie and Steve VanAntwerp, who previously owned the restaurant for 35 years before selling the store to the LaFonds.

“We had a great summer,” Allison said. “We loved it, and we are very thankful to the community for welcoming us with open arms.”

The couple, who also has two young children, have been kept busy running the business and keeping things true to the longtime traditions of Driftwood Summer Shop.

“We got a turn-key business,” Allison said. “We got very lucky in the sense that we didn’t have to build customers or anything. We had to allow the customers to continue loving Driftwood. We love the charm of it. We kept as much the same as we could.”

The couple slightly changed the hours to adapt to what worked best for them as a family and the Sister Lakes community.

The couple experienced a true testament of the community’s willingness to help during the Fourth of July weekend when the store almost ran out of ice cream. On 3 p.m. that Friday, the store was fully stocked with their delivery. By Saturday at 11 p.m., the store was so busy it had eight tubs left out of the 70 they had purchased for the weekend. The store’s supplier sent a delivery in a truck that needed a forklift. Driftwood did not have a forklift, as all of their deliveries previously had come in freight trucks.

“The new business owners in us were kind of panicky,” Allison said. “We started calling around to some of the local companies. Daniel stopped over at Lake Effect Power Sports. It wasn’t even a question for them. Tom, from Lake Effect Power Sports, just dropped everything he was doing, hopped on a forklift and drove down here.”

The couple said they were able to sell ice cream on Sunday because of the ease of obtaining help in the community.

As a generational business, the LaFonds also enjoyed hearing an array of stories from their customers.

The couple will be living in Sister Lakes year-round and are already brainstorming for next year’s summer season.

“We’d like to expand a deck, and we’d love to have a dedicated arcade if that is somehow possible,” Daniel said.

Another store in Sister Lakes, Knee Deep Living, which offers paddleboard rentals, lessons and classes to the residents of the community, is also finishing up its summer season in Sister Lakes.

One of the owners, Darren Petterson, of Grand Haven, said the business had a great Memorial Day weekend, but the month of June was a “wash” with all the rain.

July is a big month in Sister Lakes for the business, which opened in 2014, and the weather cooperated, he said.

During the off-season, Petterson plans to expand the store’s capability for online shopping and wants to partner with other local businesses in the Sister Lakes area. For next year, Petterson wants to create and design new items for the shop that are specific to the Sister Lakes area, including trying out new T-shirt designs.

“We pride ourselves on having one-of-a-kind items that you can’t find anywhere else,” Petterson said. “We’d also like to get back to our roots of hosting more classes, events and lessons during the season. It’s much more fun to be out on the water.”

The store is open from spring, or whenever the water on the lake thaws, until Columbus Day weekend in October, Petterson said.

As Labor Day weekend begins, and businesses prepare for those few final days of summer, both the sun and sales signs might be out.