Life’s Big Adventure

The University of West Georgia wasn’t working out for William James. He hadn’t declared a major and felt that academia wasn’t where he was meant to be.

So in 2001 he returned to Menlo, sat his parents down at the kitchen table and told him he wanted to drop out of college. He needed something completely different. He needed to get out into the great outdoors.

His parents were supportive of his decision and soon, William was driving across the country to the National Outdoor Leadership School, a nonprofit outdoor education school dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoor skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions or the “back country” as William calls it.

He loved every minute of it.

“On the way out there I visited national parks along the way,” he said, “it was an amazing experience and coupled with my training at NOLS I realized I wanted to use these outdoor skills to help people.”

Fast forward to November 2016 when William, in his work as a Redmond Regional Medical Center volunteer, is awarded the prestigious Georgia Hospital Heroes Award at the Georgia Hospital Association’s Annual Meeting. He was one of only 10 individuals statewide to receive the award which was in recognition of his support of cancer patients and their families.

 He’s a volunteer at Redmond’s Dr. Gerald McCormick Cancer Center, spending time visiting with patients and their families and providing support to those with a cancer diagnosis.

William’s love of the outdoors and his passion for helping others led him to establish SummitQuest, a local organization that provides services, resources and outdoor activities to children who are (or whose families) are affected by cancer.

Read the full story here.