I know I’ve written before about “unforeseen challenges” that occur as part of the month to month planning of our annual downtown events, but this week I’ve got a doozy to tell you about.

You may remember I mentioned last week that Oct. 10 is the Come Walk With Me cancer benefit the Sumner Downtown Association hosts for the Good Samaritan Foundation local breast cancer awareness programs. However, if you’ve driven under the bright pink street banner that’s been hung near the Ryan House Museum, you might have noticed that it says Sunday, Oct. 10. Now if you check your calendar, you’ll note that the 10th is a Saturday, not a Sunday. That’s right, when we had the sign company change the date for 2009, we didn’t notice that it said Sunday. And this year, for the first time, we scheduled the event for a Saturday.

Just make the change, you say? Well, that’s easier said than done. First you need to ask the sign company to make a sticky patch to cover the error with the correct date. We’ve done that. Then there’s some expert groveling that needs be done when you talk with Pat Clerget in public works. You see, it requires two staffers, a lift truck with a bucket and a possible partial street closure in order to “stick” the correct day on the banner if it’s already been hung across the street.

And then there’s the special event permit meeting that’s a laugh a minute when you’re requesting that police, fire, public works, parks and community development departments to sign off on the requested permit.

Especially when they all know about the error. These good-natured folks love to find a reason to give me a bad time at the meetings where they approve the many downtown events that SDA hosts.

In fact, if you try to call me Wednesday afternoon and I don’t answer my phone, it’s because I will be in just such a meeting attempting to obtain signed special event permits for our upcoming Autumn Evening and Come Walk With Me events.

And speaking of Autumn Evening, Saturday’s event will kick off the fall season downtown once again. Merchants will be open late from 5 to 8 p.m. and, back by popular demand, the Dancing Scarecrows will performing every half hour on Main Street to entertain visitors.

In addition to the bright pink banner, you may have also noticed all the cornstalks decorating downtown.

Several crews of volunteers, led by Councilman Leroy Goff, were busy this weekend cutting cornstalks at the Community Gardens and tying them to the street corners and lamp posts on Main Street.

So mark your calendars for Saturday and Oct. 10. And then, if you are so inclined, the next time you see Pat Clerget please put in a good word for me. It would also be nice if you could spread the word about the walk being on Saturday, not Sunday.

The great thing about Sumner is that even with unforeseen challenges, everyone pulls together to make any day downtown a fun place to spend some time.