It’s been a little more than a month since the season came to an end for Streetsboro track and field. It’s a little more than a month until the Rockets cross country team participates in its first meet of the season.
Yet the running never stopped for Streetsboro’s James Woods.
That’s why the Do It For James Foundation’s 5K Walk/Run Day of Fun, set for July 19, has always started with a run. The foundation’s third annual Day of Fun will take place at Streetsboro’s City Park, including a race scheduled for 10 a.m., registration beginning at 8 a.m., and plenty of other activities as the Woods family commemorates what should’ve been his 20th birthday, had he not been the victim of a sextortion plot. The event honors Woods’ love of community, fun and music, but it starts, fittingly, with a 5K.
“The main thing is the running,” said Tim Woods, James’ father. “He did cross country, and even when he wasn’t doing cross country he was still outside running around the neighborhood. He didn’t miss a day.”
“He would come in and it’s dead smack in the middle of winter and his hands are on fire from how cold [it is],” said Tamia Woods, his mother. “And I’m like, ‘James, you didn’t put on the gloves your dad gave you,’ and I had to rub his hands warm.'”
Running from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the event includes roughly 20 to 25 vendors, a half-court contest and a raffle featuring signed items from Ohio State legend Archie Griffin and Cleveland Cavaliers standout Darius Garland.
“This run, it incorporates pretty much him in every way,” Tim Woods said. “He liked to run, he liked to have fun, he liked to laugh and joke, he liked to learn stuff, and he liked the heat. So this run, every year that we’ve done it is pretty much James. It’s everything that he is, that’s what the run is.”
The Do It For James Foundation mixes fun with learning
The foundation’s Day of Fun includes athletic competitions, line dancing and a DJ. There will be plenty of classic summer fair items, from lemonade stands to dessert vendors, candles to jewelry.
There will also be more serious components, with vendors like the FBI, Gracehaven, LifeAct and Streetsboro Police working to prevent what happened to Woods.
“It is in celebration of James’ birthday,” Tamia Woods said. “His birthday is July 23rd, so we like to have it around his birthday, but we incorporate the face-to-face interactions, the resources that our kids can get directly from the horse’s mouth, in order to be able to use that if they ever need it.”
The race’s first-, second- and third-place finishers — boys and girls, high school and college — receive scholarships. Moreover, runners who talk to the various vendors and get their cards checked off, will be entered for the chance to be drawn at random for scholarships. The scholarships, Tim Woods said, can be used for college, but they can also go toward trade school or the military. The goal, per Woods, is to “encourage them to do something with their life.”
The scholarship element is particularly poignant because Tamia and Tim Woods always hoped for James to earn a college scholarship.
“It was a goal of ours to make sure that James had scholarships going into college, and we never had a chance to fulfill that goal,” Tamia Woods said. “So by us creating avenues for others to have scholarships going into college, it’s like us giving James a scholarship.”
Do It For James Foundation has plenty of programming planned for the fall, winter
This year’s Day of Fun includes new elements like the half-court contest — with everyone who makes a shot getting a $50 gift card — and a giant bounce house.
The organization is planning a number of new things over the coming months as well, including a mental health poetry book release Nov. 15 at the Akron Civic Center and a gala tentatively scheduled for January. Tamia and Tim Woods, who have already given speeches at schools across the state, will also embark on an “I Am Enough” tour as they talk about grief, suicide awareness, child exploitation, sextortion and teaching people how to make a report of their own. Tamia said her son loved helping people and that’s the legacy they hope to continue.
“We want to continue to create avenues where we provide a place where people can grow and learn, but it doesn’t have to be boring all the time,” Tamia Woods said. “That’s how we raised James. We raised him with love and laughter, but we educated him on a lot of things, and the one thing we never had a chance to educate James on was sextortion, and it’s because we didn’t know anything about it. So now, as his parents, we have to continue to educate others.
“And by us seeing all the kids come out, hearing the laughter from everyone and seeing the smiles on everyone’s face, it just shows the light that James had on him at all times.”
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: ‘It’s everything that he is’: Do It For James Foundation has big plans for Day of Fun
Reporting by Jonah Rosenblum, Ravenna Record-Courier / Record-Courier
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
