ADEENA WADE, 19, was chosen as one of three finalists to portray Queen Thelma in this year’s Grand Floral Parade during the Portland Rose Festival. Although she did not win, Adeena enjoyed her time being involved with the Rose Festival and is looking forward to walking with the Battle Ground Rose Float during the parade on June 7. Photo courtesy of Adeena Wade
ONE OF THREE finalists in the “Search for Queen Thelma” contest, Adeena Wade of Battle Ground, is shown here in Queen Thelma’s cape. Adeena was a finalist to portray Queen Thelma in this year’s Grand Floral Parade at the Portland Rose Festival. Photo courtesy of Karen Bonelli Sanquist
As a little girl, 19-year-old Battle Ground resident Adeena Wade remembers seeing the Portland Rose Festival princesses and wishing she could become one herself.
“Though because I live in Battle Ground and didn’t attend one of the schools that they pull from, being a Portland Rose Festival princess was never an option for me,” Adeena said.
However, when Adeena saw the “Search for Queen Thelma” contest on her Facebook news feed, she had to look into it.
“I read the application, watched their YouTube video about the contest and learned that I was eligible,” she said. “I had a weird, but good, feeling about it, so I went ahead and sent in an application and made my audition video to post on YouTube. It was kind of one of those, ‘why not?’ things.”
On April 9, the day the three finalists for the contest were announced, Adeena was at work, but still logged on to check Facebook during her lunch break. She was surprised, in shock and excited to discover that she was chosen as one of the finalists.
“If I was at home, I would have shrieked or something, but because I was at work, I had to stay quiet,” Adeena said. “The rest of the day was quite strange for me because I still couldn’t believe I had made it. I didn’t think I would because I do live in Battle Ground and not Portland."
The “Search for Queen Thelma” contest consisted of participants submitting a YouTube video of themselves performing a scene from Thelma Hollingsworth’s election. According to the Portland Rose Festival website, in 1914, Thelma Hollingsworth was a 17-year-old clerk in a railroad office when her boss asked her to become a candidate for Rose Festival Queen. After an exciting campaign for election, Thelma received more than two million votes and became part of Rose Festival history.
Just like the original Thelma, the three young lady finalists looked for support by people voting with their pennies.
The winner of the Queen Thelma contest was chosen on May 31 during the Starlight Parade at the Rose Festival. Adeena did not win (winner was Shelby Hansmann), but Adeena said she is thrilled for Shelby. Adeena will still get a $500 scholarship for being one of the three finalists and will now be able to walk with the Battle Ground Rose Float down the parade route during the Grand Floral Parade on June 7.
“Being a finalist for this contest is such an honor,” Adeena said. “We’re talking about the Queen of all of Rosaria. From the stories I’ve heard and the photos I’ve seen, she (Thelma) was such an amazing lady. She was so involved with the festival year after year and was quite the Portland celebrity. To be celebrating her centennial, and to be a part of such a huge point in history … I can’t describe it. I’ll remember this for the rest of my life. It’s so incredibly special.”
A 2013 graduate of Battle Ground High School, Adeena has been attending Clark College full time since the fall of 2013. She is working towards getting her transfer degree at Clark and was recently admitted into the Transfer AA Honors Program. During her senior year of high school, she was very involved in several different clubs, groups and activities, including ASB, the Rachel’s Challenge Club, National Honor Society, Rotary Interact Club, the STRIPES Freshmen Mentoring Program, the Bengal Yearbook staff and Quill and Scroll, the National Honor Society for High School Journalists.
In 2006, Adeena said her neighbor, Sandy Helyer, who is the current president of the Battle Ground Rose Float Committee, invited her, her sister and a good friend to help work on the Battle Ground Rose Float that year. Adeena loved working on the float and has been “glued to” the rose float as a volunteer ever since.
“The people there have become a second family to me, and I enjoy being a part of such an amazing community tradition each year with them,” she said.
Adeena’s father, Kevin Wade, is the owner of Lasting Generations Woodworking in Battle Ground and her mother, Yvette Wade, is the design manager at Sunlight Supply in Vancouver. Her sister, Sabrina, is currently a sophomore at Battle Ground High School.
Adeena works with her mom at Sunlight Supply as a photographer/marketing assistant and began working there the summer after her sophomore year of high school. Being surrounded by art and creativity her whole life, Adeena discovered her passion for digital photography in eighth grade. Since then, she has had pieces at the Clark County Fair and had some work on display at the Battle Ground Pro-Active Physical Therapy office.
After finishing school at Clark, Adeena hopes to be in the Creative Media and Digital Culture program and would like to earn her degree in Digital Technology and Culture.
