Relay chairman stepping aside

By Staff
Melissa Cason
Each year James Woodall spends the day of Relay for Life at the Russellville High School football stadium.
There he helps set the stage for the night's event and helps committee members and teams get ready.
While this won't be his last year as a part of Relay for Life, it will be the last year he comes to the event as the committee chairperson.
"I decided this will be my last year to chair the Relay for Life," Woodall said. "I am not leaving Relay altogether, I just won't be chairing the event."
Woodall began chairing the event in 1998 and continued through 2002. He took 2003 and 2004 off from chairing and returned to his post as chairperson in 2005.
"I have enjoyed the event and will continue to enjoy it," he said.
"Our team will continue to raise money and I will be a committee member."
Woodall said other obligations have kept him from giving the Relay his full attention this year, and because of that, he wants to give up the chair position.
"I'm the kind of person who wants to give everything I do 100 percent, and when I can't give it the attention it deserves it's time to give it up," he said.
Beth Faulkner, with the American Cancer Society, said Belinda Johnson will head the committee as chairperson next year, but Woodall would be a permanent fixture at Relay events.
"When he told me he was stepping down, I told him that he had to be a part of our committee," Faulkner said.
Woodall said he truly enjoys Relay and the crowd it draws every year.
"It's like, for one night, we forget everything, the economy, the squabbles, for that reason over there," he said as he pointed to the luminaries lined to spell out the word hope.