Adena crowns heritage royalty

Harrison News-Herald Reporter

ADENA —Every year Adena puts on their annual celebration called Adena Heritage Days. The two day event is filled with live music, family fun, and of course a parade. An integral part of the parade is always the Heritage Days Queen and Grand Marshal. The queen and marshal are each individuals chosen from the residents of Adena who exemplify positive attributes that are most important to the village. This year, those residents are Nancy Toto and Ray Jeskey.

Toto has lived in Adena for just over five years, but her husband grew up in the area. Both of them love Adena.

“The people are great here,” she said. “It’s just nice to be around people who are friendly. It’s a friendly town.”

She has always participated in the Heritage Days celebration. At 81 years old, she’s a cancer survivor, friend of the Lion’s Club, has made bike trips that spanned hundreds of miles, and has been an integral part of the community of Adena.

“I’m just so grateful they asked me to be queen,” Toto said. “I’ve been in a lot of parades… Nobody’s ever asked me to be queen though!”

She said she has always enjoyed being part of celebrations, so she was excited to be such a big part of heritage days this year.

Jeskey has lived around Adena for his entire 74 years of life. His three children stayed in the area, and back in 2000, he even ran for mayor. He won and served the community for 13 years. His proudest accomplishments during his time in politics were helping with infrastructure, paving 24 different streets as well as buying several properties for village use.

When asked what Adena means to him, he quickly replied, “Everything. It’s a small community, close-knit. Pretty much used to know everybody.”

In his spare time he enjoys working on classic cars, regularly entering them into shows around the county and driving them in parades.

“It’s a healthy thing for the town,” Jeskey said. “It’s a community thing for people to get together. I don’t ever want ot see it discontinued. It’s nice, there’s nice entertainment. We started out with nothing and now it’s been built up.”

Be sure to stop in Adena for Heritage Days August 11 and 12.