Ginny Adame is the DWI coordinator for the village of Los Lunas/Valencia County DWI Program. She has been with the DWI Program since March 2006 and in the coordinator’s position since 2011.
She lives in Los Lunas with her family, including her husband, David Adame; daughters, Kelsae and Zera Adame; and niece, Arrow Phay. Her mother is Yvonne Phay; and her aunt is Teresa Dippery.
Q What do you think about when you’re alone in your car?
A “While in my car I often contemplate what task needs to be done next, which sometimes is responsible for me missing turns to my destination. Other times, I just get into listening to music.”
Q What was the last gift you gave someone?
A“The last gift I gave was to my mother for Mother’s Day. The gift was a solar powered patio table with decorative butterflies on the table top that light up at night.”
Q What were you like in high school?
Ginny Adame graduated from Fall River High School in Northern California in 1991.
A “I went to a very small high school, Fall River High School in Northern California with 32 kids in my graduating class. At the small high school, I benefited from being able to be active in a lot of different activities from sports, which included softball, basketball, track and cheerleading, to holding the position of president for our Parliamentary Procedure debate team with FFA. I was proud to be a straight ‘A’ student.”
Q What is the funniest thing that has happened to you recently?
A “Laughing is one of my favorite things to do, but I can’t recall anything funny that recently happened.”
Q What did you want to be when you grew up?
A “I always wanted to be an attorney.”
Q Who inspires you?
A “The list of who inspires me is a really long one. I have a wonderful family, colleagues and friends. What I found very inspirational is my mother, whom is 2 1/2 year’s cancer free. During her fight against cancer, she had chemo every other Wednesday and was back at work the following Monday. She was very sick, but that did not keep her down.
Family is the most important to Ginny Adame. Pictured, from left, are Adame, her mom, Yvonne Phay; her youngest daughter, Zera, her niece, Arrow Phay, and her husband, David Adame.
Submitted photos
“She refused to lay down and die and she vowed to beat cancer. She insisted on continuing to work full time as a RN MDS coordinator and she still fixed dinner and helped the family whenever she was able. She refused to let cancer make her feel sorry for herself or completely slow her down. Her fighting spirit and positive attitude, even in the face of cancer, has truly inspired me.”
Q What is your birth order in your family, and do you think it influences who you are?
A “I am the big sister to my only brother, Gary Phay. I think being the oldest definitely impacted who I am. I got to watch out for my brother back in the days when kids were sent outside after breakfast and returned briefly for lunch and then back out until the street lights came on or your parents called you.
“Being responsible for my younger brother taught me a lot of lessons to include independence, responsibility and negotiations — sometimes with my brother and sometimes with other kids who wanted to fight my feisty brother.”
Q What do you do in your free time?
A “Free time? Free time is limited, but when I do have it, I really enjoy spending time with my family, working in my yard, hanging out with my chickens/rooster. I am definitely an animal lover!”
Q What’s the most interesting thing about you?
A “I have had a lot of interesting jobs in my life ranging from florist to a correctional officer at Perryville State Prison, where I worked the maximum security unit. I have also lived overseas in Germany while my husband served as a medic in the Army. Our youngest daughter, Zera, was born there.”
Q If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
Ginny Adame loves animals, especially her pet rooster.
A “To answer this question I decided to ask my youngest daughter, Zera. She came up with a bear, and her reasoning was that mama bears are strong and very loving with their cubs, but that they can be mean, but only when provoked. My kids have seen all of the above.”
Q You find a lottery ticket that ends up winning $10 million. What would you do?
A “First, I would pay off debt for my parents, brother and our family. I would definitely use the money to help as many of my friends and charitable causes as possible. Moving with my family to Cozumel to retire would also make the list.”
Q Who is your best friend and why?
A “My husband is my best friend. He is a great community leader, mentoring youth at TNT PAL Boxing club. He has served our country and made many sacrifices both known and unknown for our freedom and our family. He is a loving father to our children and others who we have taken in throughout the years. He is my biggest supporter in good and bad times. He treats me like a queen and he is always there for me.”
Q What’s your favorite song to sing when you’re alone?
A “I really like a variety of music so narrowing it down to one song is really hard, but fond memories of my childhood when can be brought back by the Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival — my parents would play this music when we were on our way out to camp and hike at Bear Creek.”
Q Where is your happy place, and why?
A “My happy place is in the forest or by the ocean — I love nature and it never fails to remind me of my place in the big picture of things and that beauty is all around us if we take our time and focus on the right things.”
Parents David Adame, left, and Ginny, right, are ecstatic when their daughter, Kelsae, graduated from the UC Berkley.
Q Have you had a life-changing experience that led you to where you are today?
A “Being a military spouse definitely was a life-changing experience. I learned to be self-reliant while also learning that I could count on strangers who were also part of the military and being part of the military community. I had family that I could count on and can still count on to this day. While we are no longer active duty, our time in the military will always shape our family. I have the greatest gratitude and respect for those who serve our country and our community.”
Q What teacher had the greatest impact on you?
A “The teacher who had the greatest impact on me was, Janice Ducy, my agriculture teacher. In seventh grade, she saw potential in me for public speaking and vowed to make me the president of the Parliamentary Procedure Debate team and my freshman year, she did just that.
“A male ag teacher from another town suggest to her to put me as vice president and put the only boy on our team as the president because he was a boy. She refused to change my position from president to vice president because she believed I was the stronger speaker. Our team took first place in the Parliamentary Procedure Debate team novice division in the state of California my freshman year and second place in the State Parliamentary Procedure Debate team advanced division my sophomore year and then first place my junior year.
“There were more than 500 teams in each division each year and in California the debate teams faced schools from all sizes. Janice Ducy inspired me as a young woman and as a public speaker — I am who I am today with the public speaking skills because she believed in me.”
Q If you could live in any other time, when might that be and why?
A “I’d go back to the ’80s’ when I was a teen, and it was a pretty good time to be alive. Maybe I just miss being free from adult responsibilities or maybe it was the music and movies — ‘Weird Science,’ ‘Sixteen Candles and ‘The Breakfast Club’ — the list goes on and on.”
Q If you could have dinner with one famous person from history, who would it be?
A “Albert Einstein, brilliant and misunderstood. My favorite quote comes from him, ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.’”
Q What are you most proud of?
A “My daughters. Kelsae Adame has graduated from New Mexico Tech with her bachelor’s in physics and math, and then she went on to Berkley and graduated with her master’s in nuclear physics. Zera Adame graduated from Los Lunas High school in May 2019 with honors and she also graduated from UNM-Valencia with her certified nursing assistant (CNA) as a senior in High School.”
Q How would you like to be remembered?
A “I would like to be remembered as someone who contributed positively to her community and the lives of others.”
The Valencia County News-Bulletin is a locally owned and operated community newspaper, dedicated to serving Valencia County since 1910 through the highest journalistic and professional business standards. The VCNB is published weekly on Thursdays, including holidays both in print and online.
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April 18, 2024
