By DEREK REDD

WHEELING — Jodi Carder isn’t just the next generation of leadership in the family business. She’s the next generation of leadership of an Ohio Valley institution.

Carder serves as secretary/treasurer of Coleman’s Fish Market, a business that has been a stalwart of the region for more than a century. She is the fourth generation of the Coleman family to work there.

She not only understands the responsibility that comes with the role; she embraces it. For Carder, it’s a labor of love to help keep her family’s business going strong and to give back to the community in which she grew up, one that embraced her family and her business. It’s a feeling she wants to return in kind.

Carder’s background comes not in business, but in theater. She earned an undergraduate degree in the subject at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, then earned a master’s at the University of Central Florida. After graduating from UCF, she returned to Wheeling to be closer to family while her father Joe was undergoing cancer treatment.

In returning, she worked with Dave Henderson at both Wheeling Central Catholic High School and Wheeling University, learning every aspect of the theater business from the front of the stage to backstage to the ticket office and more.

“I had the opportunity to do every tiny little bit,” Carder said, “and (Henderson is) just remarkable. He’s one of those really talented open souls that does everything. And he was just willing to let you do and learn everything. There were really no boundaries, which was really nice.”

Carder’s turn to the family business came when she was working at Oglebay and, one Lent, she realized how short-handed her dad was at the market.

She knew he needed help – and she knew someone needed to learn the ins and outs of the business to keep it rolling in the years to come. Carder was up to the task.

“I thought, I’m going to come down and I’m going to learn certain things and we’ll just have a wealth of knowledge,” she said. “I just got to kind of see it from the inside out. And then, just from there, Dad just began to teach me more and more.”

Carder said she absorbed so much information from so many who work at the market, including some who have worked there for decades. The key, she said, was to learn with an open mind.

“The thing I learned the most was going in with a ‘yes’ attitude,” she said. “Whatever they were going to show me or tell me or teach me. I was going to say ‘yes.’ No judgment, no thought on a different way to do it. Just do it.”

Carder said she plays many roles at the fish market.

She considers herself the steward of the market, the person who “mothers” it. She’ll order inventory and handle payroll and hiring. She says she’s “in training” under the wing of her father, and adds that the years working with Henderson and learning about the theater have come in handy. As varied as her roles were then, they’re just as varied now.

One thing that does remain constant is the joy she feels being part of the Ohio Valley. She loves being part of its business community and the community in general. She enjoys seeing how Coleman’s Fish Market transcends generations.

“You’re carrying on a tradition,” she said. “We’ve been so fortunate, being over 100 years old. People bring their loved ones and enjoy that food. You’re creating experiences for people. You are feeding and nourishing a community.”