When Ohio Magazine’s art director, Lesley Blake, asked her colleagues to brainstorm cover presentations for each of our 2010-11 Best Hometowns, she had just one prerequisite: They should be “real people” covers. After all, it is the warmth, hospitality, community spirit and dedication of residents that make a hometown truly special.

This is our fifth year of recognizing the best of the best in a state that is filled with special hometowns. Each year, we seek to portray the towns in separate regional covers — and one collective cover for newsstands — that are as distinctive as the towns themselves. Over the years, we have captured the towns’ personalities in beautiful pictures, woodcuts and paintings of historical landmarks and other points of interest.

For our winners this year, we decided to select individual representatives of each town to celebrate their community’s winning ways. The picture on this page shows the cover subjects along with photographer Matt Roharik and the entire team that made the multiple cover shoots happen.

The winning towns and their cover representatives are:

Medina — Cheerleader Hilary Slonaker, Medina High School
Urbana — 2009 Homecoming Queen Moriah Makarius and
               Nitro the Knight, Urbana University
Wapakoneta — Stephanie Bracy, Wapakoneta High School Band
Worthington — Cub Scout Pack 234 Cubmaster Doug Zinn,
               his son Nathan Zinn, and Jackson Baylor
Zanesville — Sculptor Alan Cottrill

These individuals represent towns that made it to the top of our editors’ “best” list by virtue of their excellence in arts and culture, health and safety, education, historical preservation, business environment and good old-fashioned hometown pride.

Learn more about the towns in stories that begin on page 57. You’ll come away impressed with the many attributes that make these towns standouts: the resilience of Medina, the natural beauty of Urbana, the heritage of Wapakoneta, the health consciousness of Worthington, the artistry of Zanesville.