Jefferson Award Winner Builds A Community To Help Oakland Youth Thrive
OAKLAND (CBS 5) - An Oakland native who married her high school sweetheart, a mother, a grandmother, a police officer - that barely begins to describe what this week's Jefferson Award winner means to her hometown.
For the past 26 years, Margaret Dixon has been trackside for the kids who participate in the Police Activities League Track Program in Oakland.
"I don't just coach them on the track. I coach them through their life," Dixon explained. "I know that they need me all the way through their life, many of them, so they call me for advice."
And they listen because they know she's been in their shoes. Dixon grew up in West Oakland and worked 25 years as an Oakland police officer. But she has always taken the time to help the kids in her community.
"I wanted young people to know that yes, law enforcement can also be part of your family and so I wanted to be that extended family to them," Dixon said.
That's what she's been for Willie Griffin, who started running on the Oakland PAL track team when he was four. He said there were times when he was rough on Coach Dixon, but she never gave up on him.
"I think about the support she gave me, the sacrifices that she made," Griffin remembered. "Everything played a part in keeping me on the straight road, because she taught me discipline away from home."
As a police officer, Dixon was recognized for developing numerous community programs: Adopt a Family, Hoops for Education, and Read and Run. She retired from the department seven years ago and started teaching a class in criminal justice at Merritt College, challenging her students to serve their community.
And as she does on the track, she asks each student to finish what they start.
"I expect you to put your heart in it to finish this class," Dixon told the students. "If you can tell me that you have done your best, that's all I need to hear, you've done your best."
Griffin is proud to tell the younger runners about how he's done his best. He just graduated from college.
"What she is doing now is bigger than her," he told them. "This is a community right now and it takes a community to raise a child, and that's what she is doing."
Dixon turned to Griffin to add, "I just want to say I am proud of you. I appreciate that."
"When you say it takes a village, it takes a village," Dixon said. "It's always been my passion to give back. I always felt I could make a difference so I have continued down that path."
So for giving young people solid footing on the path to success, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Margaret Dixon.
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