Join us for the 2nd Alvin Dixon Memorial Run on Sunday July 22nd 2018! You can come to Oshawa, the site of GC43, or you can run or walk in your community.
The Alvin Dixon Memorial Bursary Fund will support initiatives that focus on multi-year academic education programs for Aboriginal students.
Alvin W. Dixon was born on June 10, 1937 and grew up in and near Bella Bella, also known as Waglisla, on the eastern side of Campbell Island along the central British Columbia coast. He was raised by a grandmother who lived off the land in the traditional way.
Alvin was taken to the Alberni Indian Residential School on Vancouver Island when he was 10 years old. When he graduated, he enrolled at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver as one of six First Nations students at the school. He majored in English and took teacher’s training. He paid for his degree by working summers as a fisherman.
Alvin died of cancer on July 20, 2014 in Vancouver. His two sons, two daughters, six grandchildren, two sisters and a brother survive him.
Throughout his life Alvin quietly worked behind the scenes to improve the lives of First Nations people in many areas including those involved in the First Nations fishery and First Nations youth, as well as raising awareness with Canadians about the experiences of Indigenous children in residential schools, especially through working with the BC Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society.
In honour of Alvin’s life and his dedication to the United Church and to education, an endowed fund at The United Church of Canada Foundation is established in his memory.
