The Howard County Veterans Foundation with the Veterans Day Parade and Ceremony Planning Committee named Tracy Adkins and Kelly Kesler grand marshals of the 2024 Howard County Veterans Day Parade.
Organizers bestow the grand marshal title on individuals who represent the values and morals of the Howard County community of veterans and military families. This year’s grand marshal nominations followed the 2024 theme “honoring our military families.”
Tracy Adkins has dedicated her life to supporting military families, including her own, consisting of her husband, retired Col. Win Adkins, and son, Mitchell Adkins, a cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. She has navigated moves to the Indo-Pacific and European commands and her husband’s deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, South America and other locations.
Among her roles, Adkins served as the family readiness programs manager for a special mission unit and Fort Meade chapter director of Blue Star Families, which strengthens military families and communities, as well as a volunteer for the Special Operations Command Care Coalition, Armed Forces Foundation, American Red Cross and the United Service Organizations at Fort Meade and Fort Belvoir. She has been recognized with civilian medals and awards for her efforts.
Outside her service to military families, Adkins supervises active aging programs for Howard County Recreation and Parks.
Kelly Kesler has spent more than 10 years advocating for disabled veterans, including her husband who lives with medical needs following burn pit exposure. She navigated the Veterans Benefits Administration’s process to ensure her husband received full disability recognition and medical care, while raising children through school and extracurricular activities.
Kesler champions military families in Howard County. She served as the recording secretary for the Howard County Commission for Veterans and Military Families and as director of the Howard County Health Department’s Bureau of Population Growth and Local Health Improvement Coalition, where she brought in veterans to serve on the Behavioral Health Committee.
An advocate in Maryland schools, Kesler supports the state’s Purple Star School Program, which recognizes schools that support military-connected students and their families, and served on the Long Reach High School PTA, bringing the school’s band into the Veterans Day Parade. She also helped establish programs for veterans at the University of Maryland.
The Howard County Veterans Day Parade will take place Sunday, Nov. 10, at 9:30 a.m. in downtown Columbia. To learn more, visit HowardCountyVeterans.org/parade.
