Word on the

Street

This past weekend lots of longtime friends and family journeyed to Main Street and Sunset Chev Stadium for two of our time-honored community traditions. Though I didn’t make it to the stadium for Relay For Life, I know lots of folks who were headed that way.

But the downtown core is my stomping ground so to speak, and all the activities on Main Street at the Arts Festival kept me plenty busy. Most everyone who participated in the event was more than grateful that the weather cooperated and cooled down a good 15 to 20 degrees – especially those cooking in the food booths. The food court in the center of town is always the place to be if you want to see friends and acquaintances, say hi to community volunteers working at church and local service program booths, or taste some of the greatest burgers, barbecue, tacos, hot dogs and pies that money can buy, knowing all the proceeds go for a good cause.

Organizers for the Arts Festival, Kim Erenheim, Stuart Scheuerman (that’s almost harder to spell than Schlumpf) Mary Malone and Lori Bronkoski, and all their other volunteers, deserve a big thanks for the work that goes into hosting such an event. I cracked up as I talked to Kim on Friday when she showed me her new pedicure. Her toenails were painted in a watermelon motif, seeds and all. Now, that’s some dedication to an event. I love it!

For those of you who’ve been in Sumner for the last 10 or 20 years, you know that watermelons were the original graphic logo for the event because of the free watermelon served by Bank of America. In fact, when I popped in there Friday morning, I saw they were still serving it to their customers. You gotta love Sumner traditions.

The Sumner Rotary pie booth was also enjoying a brisk business this weekend. I love that they have a long-standing tradition of serving strawberry-rhubarb pie at the Festival. The city’s branding campaign of “Rhubarb Pie Capital” is just catching up with what they’ve known all along. It was also great to see the Sumner High School alumni booth, Kiwanis, Young Life, Rainbow and all the other nonprofit groups back at work, too. And I don’t normally use my column for nefarious purposes, but I’m hoping that by mentioning I didn’t see Steve Starr in the Sumner Presbyterian booth, he’ll end up with at least a $1 fine at Rotary this next week. You can be sure I will be doing a happy dance and wearing a big smile as he pulls out his wallet.

As for the Sumner Downtown Association burger booth, a huge thank you to Nina Burlingame, Ann Fish and all the other Heritage Bank managers that not only came to town to work the booth, but shop in some of their favorite downtown stores. And they weren’t the only folks to ensure SDA was serving some great onion burgers. I’ll get an updated list from Nina and be back next week with more stories of who braved the grill to not only help SDA, but make sure there was one more reason to come downtown and spend some time in Sumner.