Stiles and Brooks win awards for achievements with Relay For Life

Kendall Stiles’ hard work and dedication to the Relay For Life cause won her a national award.

Stiles, chair of the Baldwin County Relay For Life committee for four years, won a “National Impact Award” for her efforts.

“It’s a national award given by the National Relay For Life advisory team and there were only 64 recipients this year out of 3,343. It’s a national award,” said Donna Boyd, Baldwin County’s ACS representative.

“It’s very exciting when people locally recognize you for what you do, but when it’s more of a regional or divisional, especially a national level it really helps you know what you are doing, that you are doing the right stuff,” said Stiles. “We are so excited about it. We won our first national award three or four years ago for our youth initiative. We were one of the first relays to actually really get youth involved and I really put that back to Georgia College & State University, especially with the things that the Business school, Dr. (Ginger) Carter’s classes and Dr. (Barbara) Funke are doing.”

Fellow Relay For Life participants and colleagues of Stiles couldn’t be happier that she won such a prestigious award.

Funke, professor of Health, Education and Physical Education, works closely with Stiles during the Relay For Life season.

“I was thrilled that Kendall was given this award,” said Funke. “She is an awesome individual with a big heart and a great ability to rally individuals and a community around a cause. GC&SU and Milledgeville have benefited tremendously by her dedication and commitment to so many causes.”

“She is a well-deserving recipient and I can’t think of another person who is as deserving of this award than Kendall Stiles,” said Teresa Taylor, Georgia College & State University’s service learning coordinator.

“There is not a more deserving person that could have won the Impact Award. Not only does Kendall give up her time to relay, she gives up her time to anything,” said Boyd. “She has a true volunteer spirit and she truly has the passion and cares for other people and that really comes through in what she does with relay and in what she does in her job and in her personal life. I think she is a wonderful person.”

Stiles and 2003 co-chair Susan Brooks also accepted awards on behalf of the entire Relay for Life planning committee for their work during the 2001-2002 season. Baldwin County won the “Spirit of Relay Award” and the “Phylecia D. Wilson Spirit of Relay For Life Award for the Southeast Division.”

“It’s wonderful. Just being a survivor and seeing all the people in the community that have come together to raise money, that’s really the award of relay,” said Brooks.

“It just makes me feel good about the work that we are doing,” said Stiles.

The Relay For Life cause is important to members of the community.

“Cancer touches so many people and there are so little who are involved. It is important for everyone to become involved with the American Cancer Society,” said Taylor.

Boyd said she is proud of the work Baldwin has done for Relay For Life.

“You can tell by the awards presented that Baldwin County is a real leader,” said Boyd.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 24 2003. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry