Dear Santa,

I am the executive director for the Sumner Downtown Association. In my job, I have my ear to the ground most of the time and have heard quite a few good things this year about some grown-up kids you may know downtown.

I just thought I’d take a few minutes to put in a good word for them with you in case you might like to add something in your sleigh to deliver next week.

First, we had a great SDA Christmas party last Tuesday and those new folks at the Honda dealership sure were generous in providing a party and awards space for us, as well as some great holiday food.

That’s B-A-R-T M-A-A-S at Jay Lee’s Honda of Sumner. He’s been very good this year as far as I can tell. And then there’s Ben DeGoede of Windmill Gardens who allowed us to “borrow” some of those pretty red flowers for the tables. Not sure if that’s just Ben or Benjamin. Was hoping you could check into that for me.

Then I really need to mention Petra and Chris Karr of Ascension Theatre Productions. Now, I’m torn as to what I should report. They are just awesome about bringing in portable staging, sound systems and the like for a year end program.

Both are great to work with and have a sense of humor. But Petra was a little bit of a pill for me at the event, roasting me in front of everyone, making me wear a silver lamé cape and stainless steel colander for a crown, stuff like that. But she did give me the best present. A “Rhu-Barbie” doll that cracked everyone up and brought the house down with her play on our new branding campaign of Sumner being the rhubarb pie capital of the world.

Plus, she made a board game of me called “Where in the World is Shelly Schlumpf” because she can never find me in the office. It’s kind of like a Monopoly game with squares all around the edge but instead of Park Place or Boardwalk, it had City Hall, Spartan Agency, Heritage Bank, Windmill Gardens,

The Old Cannery, you know, places in town that I visit frequently. Another big laugh with the crowd at my expense. I’ll leave it up to you to determine if she’s been a very good girl this year or not.

Then there were some really great folks with umbrellas that volunteered this past Saturday to come out and participate in a community dance performance downtown.

There were about 40 of us who sashayed up and down Main Street to “We Need A Little Christmas” so we could film the dance and use it for digital promotions using new social media technology.

Seriously, those folks were cute as elves in the finale where we created a tree out of multi-colored umbrellas. Plus, it was colder than the dickens out there so I’m thinking they deserve a little something extra in their stockings this year.

Anyway, I wanted to bring some of these things to your attention as I know you must be busy this time of year, kind of like our downtown merchants. I just didn’t want you to overlook some really good things that have happened in Sumner this year.

We all know that Santa likes to spend some time in Sumner, and it’s all these great grown up kids who help make it such a special place.

Shelly Schlumpf is executive director of the Sumner Downtown Association.