Adame, Cilengi partner up to find King Turkey Day medallion

Sep. 13—WORTHINGTON — Worthington residents Cristina Adame and Marilyn Cilengi skipped between the yellow brick walls underneath the Burlington Northern railroad Friday morning to celebrate finding this year's King Turkey Day medallion.

The two City of Worthington employees teamed up with some of Adame's family to dissect the daily clues and search for the bronze coin worth $100 in Worthington Chamber Bucks. They found the medallion around 7 p.m. Thursday behind the JBS Fieldhouse, on the second level of bricks north of the tunnel.

The two began their search for this year's medallion by 9 a.m. Monday.

"It started when I was on my way to see Cristina," shared Cilengi. "She said, 'Bro, get into the car and let's go.'"

They spent about an hour driving to various spots in the community to look for the medallion, including Sailboard Beach, where they had thought for sure the medallion would be around the Amelia Earhardt statue because 1939 — the first King Turkey Day celebration — was also the year Earhardt died.

"We looked like fools," Cilengi said.

Adame was getting helpful tips from her sister, Dulce Willardson, and Dulce's sister-in-law, May Willardson, throughout the week. There were so many messages that Adame created a group chat on her phone to keep them organized.

Each clue had them looking in different places, they detailed. The State Theater phrase had them looking in front of Carpet Plus, while reading the word Robin sent them looking in front of The Stag Clothiers both on 10th Street. Then, the word Blue Jays sent them across town to search around the Bluejays sign.

"The beast — for me the beast was the train," Adame said. "In South America, there's this big train that they call the beast."

"We also looked at Buffalo Billfold and The Stag," quipped Cilengi.

When one of the clues mentioned a wizard, that sent Adame on the path of dental offices; and she decided the Tin Man was Lowe's Sheet Metal.

They were getting closer, although it didn't seem like it to them.

"We started looking all (around) this area," Adame shared. "I did two or three laps around the JBS Fieldhouse.

"Yesterday (Thursday) at lunch I was like, 'I'm giving up.'"

Yet, after work, Adame and Cilengi returned to the area around the JBS Fieldhouse.

"We got off work and we said we needed to visit the obvious locations again," Cilengi said.

They were so busy looking for the medallion that they missed the King Turkey Day Mixer just up the hill, at the 10th Street Pavillion. And then they were under pressure when Eric Roos and his kids showed up to look for the medallion near the JBS Fieldhouse also.

Ready to make another lap around the "beast" of a building, Adame charted off course a bit — getting closer to the railroad underpass. That's when she spotted the medallion laying on top of the second row of staircase-stacked brick.

This is the first time Adame has really focused on searching for the medallion.

"I was not invested in Worthington that much with history," she said. "With English as a second language, it was sometimes hard to understand the clues."

For her part, Cilengi watched a 30-minute cartoon video of The Wizard of Oz to understand the story, the characters and the messages.

"We always had eyes busy," Adame said of them and their helpers.

Cilengi said there need to be more medallion hunts in the community, and both are already looking forward to next year's event.

The full set of clues in this year's King Turkey Day medallion hunt follow:

In 1939, Worthington witnessed two big debuts.

Both of these exciting events made the local news.

"The Wizard of Oz" played on the State Theater's silver screen

And our town hosted the first Turkey Day; a celebration never before seen.

"There's no place like home" is the perfect choice for this year's theme

But like Dorothy's fever dream, these clues may not be what they seem.

Robins and Blue Jays and Ducks! Oh my!

But those birds don't race, they only fly.

Here in Worthington, our turkey Paycheck is King.

I'm not too far from where he and Ruby are racing.

Nobody has found me yet.

That's okay, there's no need to fret!

Here there's no Wicked Witch of the East

But there is this big structure, it's a real beast!

I don't see a lion, don't see a scarecrow

But a dog walked by, maybe it was Toto!

The Tinman is nearby and a wisdomly Wizard, too.

I see someone searching, could it be you?

There's no tornado but I hear a freight train's roar.

Right above me is the train track's floor.

I'm really not that hard to find at all,

Just click your heels and follow the yellow brick wall!