By Dale Loseth
SDA
For the last three months I have been sitting in as the interim program manager for the Sumner Downtown Association as it prepares to find a permanent manager. Needless to say, I’ve spent a lot of time in downtown Sumner and that has changed my perspective of Main Street.
The SDA bylaws describe the boundaries of our Main Street district as a seven-block area with Maple Street on the south, North Avenue on the north, the railroad tracks by Cherry Street on the west and Wood Avenue on the east.
I know now that Main Street is much larger than that. It goes across Traffic Avenue to the folks at Sunset Chevrolet who are always ready and willing to sponsor events or lend a hand with activities. It goes farther on to the Old Cannery Furniture Warehouse which adds so much to Sumner, supporting events, lighting the bridge at Christmas and bringing the double decker bus to parades.
Our boundaries reach north to the industrial park where folks like those at Green Mountain Coffee support us with volunteers and grants. They have shown that you don’t have to be on Main Street to be part of Main Street.
It continues on down East Main to the banks that are always ready with volunteers to staff events and provide sponsorships, big and small. It extends to Dixie’s Home Cookin’ where Dave Jacobs became an SDA board member because he wants to get more of the East Main businesses involved in downtown events and to get more downtown events on East Main. It reaches farther to Windmill Gardens where Ben DeGoede plays a central roll in our Christmas decorating, plus the float and hanging basket programs.
In the central business area there are people like Lola and Nolan Hansen who took the initiative to fill the vacant storefront next to Berryland Café with a visitors information display. Marshall Bennett at the Attic helped the SDA with fundraising and volunteer events. Terry Flippin is the cool, calm maestro of the Santa Parade.
Then there are all the Main Street merchants and businesses, working long hours and still finding the time to help with promotions and events. My personal theory is they have discovered how to get 30 hours out of a 24-hour day.
Threaded through all of this are the volunteers from service organizations like the Lions Club who guard crosswalks during the wine walks and the Rotary members who turn out for clean-up days and work on the float and Christmas decorating.
There are individual volunteers like Carolyn who signed up to work a later afternoon shift at the SDA booth during bridge lighting and stayed on through the evening to help take down and pack up. There are people like Jan and Ted, tireless volunteers in the office and at countless activities. Sally from City Hall, is ever present and always helping. Gordy checks in almost daily to see where he can help and to replenish his supply of “I Love Sumner” stickers.
You can see where I’m going with this: Main Street is not just a group of buildings that happened to be built in the same era or share a common architectural style.
It is people and the businesses they run or the organizations they belong to. Every day they step out their front door and look for ways to help all of Sumner prosper.
They are people who have taken what were once dry goods, hardware and grocery shops and repurposed them into unique boutiques and specialty businesses that are still bringing people into Sumner to shop. Most other Main Streets have lost that.
At times I stop and look southeast and visualize about what will be happening in the old rhubarb fields across state Route 410, the soon-to-be Orton Junction. I wonder how that will impact our downtown. Competition? I don’t think so. Partnership with downtown to help Sumner grow? I hope so. That depends on us and it depends on them.
What I do know now is that Main Street Sumner is so much bigger than a seven-block geographical area. It is all of Sumner and everybody is a part of it. It’s a huge piece of our history, it’s key to our present and it’s the key to our future.
