Living Legacy: A Sophie Dixon Story

Can one person really make a difference? This month, we put that question to the test—and the answer is a resounding YES!

In this episode of The UPLift, Ms. Sophie Dixon shares her hard-won wisdom, reminding us that community connection is where the magic happens.

About Ms. Sophie: From serving 15 years as President of the Shiloh Community Association to co-founding WRES 100.7 FM, Ms. Sophie Dixon's work has shaped Asheville across generations, including leading the local NAACP branch and launching a Community Development Corporation. And guess what? She's still going strong!

Her tireless commitment to community evolved into a living legacy rooted in advocacy, mentorship, and systems change. Whether lifting up emerging leaders or challenging injustice, Ms. Sophie has left an indelible mark on the local landscape of collective action and community care.

Ready to discover how one person's dedication can transform an entire community? Listen in as local Ashevillians share her impact on their lives and neighborhoods. With Ms. Sophie on the mic and at the heart of this conversation, you're in for a master class in leading with heart, vision, and relentless purpose. Don't wait; jump in!

We'll see you same time, same place next month. Until then, peace.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:04

We're profoundly, profoundly interconnected. We don't always live that way, we don't always acknowledge it, but if we're going to heal, we have to live it, experience it and create institutions that celebrate it. Can we create a we where no one's on the outside of it?

Speaker 2 0:20

Welcome to the Uplift with Zedek Real talk for real change.

Speaker 3 0:24

Before we jump in, a quick reminder of why we're here and what we hope to achieve. We're here to build authentic community relationships and help fuel social transformation in Asheville, north Carolina. We believe collective liberation is not only possible but probable as we share, listen and learn together. We're here for the process. However, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.

Community Impact Through Individual Action

Speaker 4 0:49

In the last year, zedek has been working to bring the community's feedback into our grantmaking, which naturally led us to talk about this idea of impact. Combined with our political and social climates, we find ourselves, like many others in our community, asking how we can make an impact on what's happening. It too often feels like we can't do anything to stop some of the compassionless actions being taken around us and leads us to believe that there's not much we can do. So for today's episode we are highlighting someone who reminds us of the power and impact one person can have on their community.

Meet Ms. Sophie Dixon

Speaker 4 1:23

Our guest today exemplifies community involvement. She has served as a charter member of the Board for Mount Zion Community Development Corporation and has served as its treasurer. She's a life member and former president and vice president of the Asheville-Buncombe County branch of the NAACP, chair of the Empowerment Resource Center of Asheville-Buncombe Inc. Where she's also a full-time office coordinator volunteer. She's a tireless advocate and resident of the Shiloh community, where she mentors youth, works towards food sustainability, builds community and has held numerous positions on the Shiloh Community Neighborhood Association and, of course, is a co-founder of the WRES FM 100.7. Ms Sophie Dixon, thank you for joining us today. Yeah, thank you guys, thank you. So tell me how did you come to live in Shiloh and what was it like when you first started getting involved there?

Life in Shiloh & Community Involvement

Speaker 5 2:18

The Shiloh part came in play when and I'm going to read the whole story, but I can kind of give you the background that I was married and had three children and we lived at Hillcrest and I was able to get a job at Neeson Salad and we were getting into a place where we wanted a home and so we ended up finding a piece of property in Shallow. So 55 years ago I had a house built, we had a house built in Shallow, and the children were just starting school, so they went to the shallow school Our school was still there at that time and they went one year and then they got moved, you know when integration supposedly came by, but anyway that happened, and so that was the early part of being in shallow. But I loved it, you know. And so then children really loved it, you know, and so was the children Really loved it, and they had a little creek in the back of the house that they could go play.

Speaker 4 3:09

Not a precious creek.

Speaker 5 3:11

They loved it. I had a hard time keeping them out of the creek but it was really really great. And so the civic part of this was my job, which I worked at a company for 35 years. I won't leave that ground yet, but anyway that was part of it. And then I started seeing a lot of activity going on and children got involved in what was going on at the Childhood Center and they were cramped and those had a lot of programs going there and then they wanted to organize to have a community organization. So I started out as a secretary for the person who was the president at the time and after being there and doing that for a while he passed and so someone said well, somebody needs to be the president, so could I take it until they found somebody. So 15 years later I'm still president. I guess they're still looking, yeah, but it's worked out really well.

Speaker 4 4:12

So you're talking about a lot of time of effort. I hear commitment to your community. How would you, ms Sophie, describe the impact that you have had on your community?

Speaker 5 4:27

Well, I hope I've made a difference. I was born and raised in Stumptown and I had welfare Baptist church and church was where you got everything at that time and it was completely segregated. And my grandmother had a home in Stumptown. Her boys stayed with her, they didn't leave home, so they all stayed there and they had a house.

Speaker 4 4:52

This was sent in from Miss Bobette Mays. I met Miss Sophie and family members in Stumptown in the early 60s. When urban renewal wiped out most of Stumptown it forced some to live in Hillcrest. I lived on Gray Street and my family was not affected, but I lost contact with my friends that I called family. I moved away after college and returned to live in Shiloh when Ms Sophie became the president of the Shiloh Community Association. I admired all of the accomplishments she had and she was such a great mentor because she had connected with so many people and it opened the door for me to realize I had a place at the table and to become a community activist. The love for our community and the city will always keep us connected.

Speaker 5 5:32

Well, I sort of kind of evolved from being in Stumptown and that background and welfare. But my grandmother was a church person and she was one of those. I have a picture now with the hat and all the stuff you know, with the fur thing. Yes, the finery, yeah. So she went to Mount Zion and so I started going to Mount Zion with my grandmother and this was way back and she took me one Sunday and all the children were starting to join church at Mount Zion. So I did too. So I had two churches. I had welfare and Mount Zion. I've been a member of Mount Zion for, I guess, 70 something years. Wow, and being that member, I'm part of Mount Zion on the map now. But it's the program that we have to help ensure that babies are born healthy and to strive and so forth. And so I was on Ms Grant's floor for 25 years when she started it and it's been such a great program and I think hopefully it's played a real impact and a real difference. So that was my major part of the church.

Speaker 4 6:47

I think when we talk about making impacts in our community, we have these really lofty goals which you have achieved many. We also kind of lose sight sometimes of what the real point of that is. It sounds like some of what you started getting involved in was around children, was around that involvement in the community. Can you tell me a little bit more deeply, ms Sophie, about what it looks like to really? When did you feel like you really could say like I am so deeply involved in my community? When did that click for you that you looked around and you're like man, I really am in it?

Speaker 5 7:22

Well, it's been so long but I do. Yeah, I say that seriously because even back, going back to the civics and the civil rights stuff, I had one of these little paper cards. I can remember I still had it from the color organization. It was called Color of course at that time and it was a civic like NAACP. So then it went from that to NAACP and years and years of work with that I was, I guess, the only female for the actual NAACP. At first I guess we had two, I think One president for the NAACP, so that kind of all comes to a full circle.

Speaker 5 8:00

I'll just share some short stories that I hope that's the only part of it. But the major pieces, like well, the NAACP, for instance, that goes all the way from the local all the way to, you know, national of course, and so, so Asheville has been really involved at all levels and Elder Hazel, of course, he was a big part of that and so between the two of us. So we did a lot of traveling on behalf of the NAACP and then I joined the Elks and we got involved with the Elks and they had a youth program and the first time I saw a computer was with the Elks. They have a camp way down east where they own property and they bring children in. And that couple of years before, as computers were coming online, they started a computer camp and so some of us would go down there for two weeks of our vacation and the children would come down and start to get involved with computers. I don't know what.

Speaker 4 8:59

So you're helping run a computer camp, you help them run a radio station. You're like, my lane is not around technology, it just finds me. It's chasing me, yeah.

Speaker 5 9:11

And then those experiences, I think, are what's really been good for me.

How Did You Do It?

Speaker 4 9:16

I want to ask you a little bit about the fact that you know the creek right, the creek and your kids. You're juggling that. You have your own job and then you also had a lot of involvement, from what I understand you know, in your church, so you have this very full life. How did you continue to do and impact work around the community and juggle all these different components? What did that look like or how did you do it?

Speaker 5 9:45

I have no idea, it just happens. It really is great to look back and think about that because you do wonder, you know. I mean so many little pieces come back to mind when I first started working and was living in Hillcrest. Of course I didn't drive and I would actually walk from Hillcrest to Biritchett Park to get the bus to go to work. And these people I was doing housework at the time they gave me money to transfer, so I walked from Pritchett Park to Hillcrest and kept the nickel, yeah, you're thinking about. You know what's the nickel, you know even that at that time, you know, made a difference and so it kind of evolved a lot of that from that. But I try to, I do try to prioritize. It doesn't work all the time, but because there are some things that you have to get done.

Speaker 4 10:39

I think when I listen to you talk about these kinds of responsibilities that you take on, it's almost like listening to someone who's just really good at saying yes. You're not saying no Right, but in a great way right, because it can be really. It can feel like a lot to take on so many things, and I think that's really true. But also, what you're describing is this is how you have built your community and have been so deeply ingrained in it is by saying yes and making time to do things that support others in your community. So at the same time that you're pouring quite a lot in, but I hope what it sounds like to me is that it's nourishing you back.

Shiloh as a CDC

Speaker 5 11:21

Oh, yes, yes, and I really feel like that that's my design from some power, power or that part of it, and it has just a shallow has just grown and we're doing all kind of major things. We're even getting registered and have started our own CDC.

Speaker 4 11:39

Which is incredible. Yes, which is incredible. So, side note, for those of us wondering what a CDC is, a CDC is a community development corporation. Following the incredible gains of the civil rights movement, leaders across the country looked around their communities and realized that, while they had made incredible gains civically, they now needed to build their communities after urban renewal had ravaged them. From there the community development corporation was born, a non-profit entity focused on the growth of a specific place, particularly those places that have been heavily disinvested in. Cdcs across the country have literally developed homes. They built homes, y'all counseled folks on home ownership. They create small businesses and entrepreneurship programs, social services, workforce development. The list goes on, but at its core, it is built, resourced and run by community. They are, in short, amazing. A community powered CDC is so rare and it is really that it will bring some of our hope back to shallow, because that's another story.

Speaker 5 12:54

And we just bought our first house under the Shiloh Community Association. Congratulations, thank you. So we moved into that house and we used that space as a shallow house and we have our meetings there now and we're going to do some other things with that and then have it open for community use.

Speaker 4 13:13

I love that, so that's really incredible, and so it's community owned.

Speaker 5 13:17

Yeah, owned by the association.

Speaker 4 13:19

Yeah, Through the association in which anyone in Shiloh can join. It's beautiful that you're able to build something that can sustain itself so that you can welcome the children of Shiloh back yeah.

Speaker 5 13:29

And we've gotten people involved who had come in with the dreams that making this happen and putting those dreams together and making it a reality. It's like the radio station is part of what has happened, but it's really turned out to be really exciting. We hardly sleep anymore because we try to get through everything. It's really great. I'm going to backtrack on the one here for a minute, because when we talk about Shiloh and the job as president and we have something that's really different right now, we have our first employed person, and so that employed person is Shaniqua Samuels. Shaniqua's grandfather was the one who was president and he passed and was the one I put you out from, so she has that connection. I think of someone who's strong. I think of someone who's unapologetically themselves.

Speaker 7 14:31

I've been up under her in my role as neighborhood navigator for Shiloh for 21 months now and watching her execute decisions and think on behalf of the community in a selfless way is encouraging to me. She's been a phenomenal mentor for me. Everywhere we go, ms Sophie introduces me. It's just a privilege because she has sat at so many tables with prestigious people making decisions that still have an impact today that she made many, many years ago. That impact was significant to me because I was so insecure about becoming Shiloh's neighborhood navigator, so much so that I said no the first time I was asked. And then Ms Sophie came to me holding my hand and asking me to reconsider. And I did.

Mentorship—Community Speaks!

Speaker 7 15:21

I guess, helping Shiloh get through the first two weeks after Hurricane Helene, that really helped me to see how my role could have a huge impact on the community. But before then, I'm just am I doing enough? Am I showing up the right way? Am I reporting right? Because they gave me all autonomy on how I navigate my role and even though on paper I'm qualified, in my heart I just wonder am I qualified? I kept questioning that and afraid that my questioning it would show up in my work and all the things but her love and her constant active listening and reassurance and letting me use her as a safe space when I do need to share. That is really the impact that she's had on my life that I get to carry with me the rest of my life.

Speaker 4 16:07

You have so many accomplishments, sophie. It is no wonder that we have so many folks who have talked about the impact that you've made on their lives, and I think two of the big things that really stand out to me are mentorship. People talk about you mentoring them, and it's something that when they share it, they're like very excited to share.

Speaker 5 16:28

I hope they don't say that I'm bossy. No, they're like very excited to share. I hope they don't say that I'm bossy.

Speaker 4 16:31

No, they're excited about it. It's really wonderful.

Speaker 5 16:34

My name is Yvette Jais. Ms Sophie Dixon has been a powerful influence on my life, the way she models herself, the way she leads her community in shallow. It gives me pause to know that such a wonderful woman, a woman of color, a woman of her statue, of her elegance and her grace, can lead such a community, and not only lead it but also encompass it and ensure that every voice is heard and that the focus is on the community and the people. Ms Dixon, I've asked her to be my mentor. I have recently been appointed the president of the Burton Street Community Association, so I have asked her, and she has agreed, to be my mentor. What better person could I have to actually mentor me and show me the ways to be impactful and compassionate and successful president for our community?

Speaker 4 17:26

Ms Alma Atkins had this to say I have known Ms Sophie Dixon since I wasa child. She has been like a mother, mentor and inspiration. She's helped me to be the civic and community worker that I am today. Thank you, ms Sophie.

Speaker 5 17:39

Hello, my name is Renee White, I'm president of the East End Valley Street Neighborhood Association and I would just like to say that Ms Sophie, as I call her, has been such a tremendous inspiration to me.

Speaker 5 17:54

She's been a mentor, she's been a friend, she has been someone who I can ask questions and she's always willing to answer. And her tenacity and her willingness to be so helpful and to continue to work day in and day out trying to make positive changes for people is just amazing. And I like to say that if I ever grow up, I like to be just like Ms Sosie and I really, really, really admire her, all that she's done and how much she continues to do, and I hope that one day she'll be able to get her some rest, have a nice vacation and just sit back and relax and enjoy the rest of her life. But until then, I know that she'll be still out there in the vineyard, still out there on the battlefield and still out there trying to make positive changes for people, and for that I'm grateful, miss Sophie, who you are so deserving.

Speaker 8 18:59

My name is Karen Talon. I've known Miss Sophie over 40 years.

Speaker 5 19:04

And the thing that has always stood out with me was that she was not afraid to stand up for what is right. It didn't matter who they were, it didn't matter how powerful they were, it didn't matter anything, but what mattered to her was that things were done right. People got what they needed. They got the respect, the services, the education, whatever it may be. Those were the things that were important to her.

Speaker 8 19:30

I have always respected her and aspired to be like her.

Inspiration—Community Speaks!

Speaker 5 19:34

Thank you, ms Dolphy, for everything that you have contributed to this community and for all of the people that are out there fighting the fight, because you've been an example.

Speaker 4 19:44

And I think the other is that your work in Shiloh is something a number of people have lifted as being really inspirational. They see it as I can impact my community too. For, Ms Sophie, community impact has very real direct effect, not only on the community at large, but on individual lives as well. Just listen.

Speaker 5 20:03

This is Benny Norman McIntosh. I was calling to wrestle Ms Sophie Dixon. I was calling to tell you how she had made an impact on my life. She has inspired me in so many ways. She's our president of our association.

Speaker 8 20:18

She has led the association to benefit everybody that lives in our neighborhood and also everybody that lives in Asheville.

Speaker 5 20:26

When I grow up, I would like to be Jeff Reitman's Sophie Dixon. She's 80 years old, a Tristan lady, trustworthy lady, a lady that you can depend on. She trains you, she gets you connected and she fixes where you can fall in her footsteps, if this is what you want to do, and I'm glad to be a part of her association. I'm glad to be a part of Mrs Dixon and I'm glad to get to know Mrs Dixon. I knew her a few years back, but I got to know her very much when I started working with her. Now I'm working with her as the financial secretary for Chalo Community and I enjoy working with her, and I couldn't find a better person to work with and work for.

Speaker 5 21:14

Hi, this is Amina Batata. I was just so pleased to know Sophie Dixon and to have learned from her example, whether it's working with our students in the public health program or at the radio station or with the legacy neighborhoods or one of the many other ways he contributes to community, not just in Shiloh but all of our community here at Asheville City and Buncombe County, as a model for how we can be civically engaged, but also to be able to support cultural and historic activities and to uplift what is really so great about how this part of the state and this part of the country are really leading the way in community-led development and community-led engagement.

Speaker 5 22:03

In many ways I like to think of Ms Sophie when I think about community engagement, because she really talks about engaging other people in her community.

A Bit of Advice

Speaker 4 22:11

You know, in an academic setting we talk about community engagement as engaging community in the work we do and it just helps me and the students really put a new perspective into play when we talk about uplifting each other and working in solidarity, and I hope that you can give us a little bit of advice and your great mentorship, with your wisdom for those who want to make an impact in their communities but they haven't taken a first step. They're sitting here kind of in this place of what do I do? How do I do it? How do I know that this is the thing I should do, as somebody who's done so much? What is your advice there?

Speaker 5 22:48

And you know, everybody can do something. Some are large and some are small, but it takes it all. I mean, I have some people who you're right, I mean they're almost like they're afraid to say or do you know, and that's okay. You see and I'm a big person now compared to where I was I guess what she thinks she's going to do, you know what she's going to do, but it's not, that's not it, it's what you do and who you are. And then you know how you treat people. I don't know, I'm not perfect, I don't know if it's okay if some people maybe I could say not everybody would say they like me and that's okay, you know. But I think everybody can do something and you know but, but, but I think everybody can do something and we just do what we can do.

Speaker 4 23:31

Yeah, that's all there is to it. Some of us are Miss Sophie's yeah.

Speaker 5 23:39

Don't know when to stop.

Speaker 4 23:40

Well, and to that end, I actually want to ask you another question about that, which is what encouragement would you offer to those who are kind of finding it hard to continue trying to make impact in their community? You know, they have taken those steps, they are doing that work and they just kind of feel like they're hitting roadblocks or that maybe you know this isn't the way that they wanted to make that impact. What would you say to them?

Speaker 5 24:03

Well, you know, everything you try won't work. I mean and I just try not to get discouraged Try something different. There's some things that you know I've tried and it wasn't for me and I may have put more time into it that I felt like I may almost wasted my time doing it. But I don't think that's really true, because I think you can learn something from almost everything you do and take that to something else if that doesn't work for you. But it's been a lifelong learning experience really.

Community Impact–Community Speaks!

Speaker 4 24:35

Well exemplifying why everybody loves to have you as a mentor. What really incredible wisdom there. I think I'm going to be thinking about that for a while. Actually, I think you have far too much that you have done to answer this question that I have, but I'm still going to ask it because I think it's always really nice to try and pinpoint it. For those of you who can't see, miss Sophie looks very nervous.

Speaker 4 25:02

Really, it's just and you know I'll kind of couch it specifically in Shiloh and the Shiloh community. You've done all this work. I think you're really highlighting a lot of those different efforts that you've made to build the community in a way that it can resist outside influence that would rather wipe it away and start something different. It's a gentrification, but you're really pushing and making it. You know, stamping the community legacy onto Shiloh, because the community is what Shiloh, because the community is what Shiloh is. If it's not apparent already, ms Sophie really has made a huge impact on her direct community in an effort to bring community members together to truly be neighbors and collaborators in the name of their neighborhood. You don't have to take my word for it either. Listen for yourself.

Speaker 8 25:48

Hello, my name is Anita White Carter and I honor Sophie for her unwavering dedication, her visionary leadership and tireless advocacy for the shallow community and the other legacy neighborhoods in Nashville.

Speaker 6 26:03

Her work has made a lasting impact, inspiring change and empowering others to build a brighter, more inclusive future.

Pride, Legacy, and Dreams for Shiloh

Speaker 5 26:11

As a long-tenured president of the Shallow Community Association, she has always supported our programs and encouraged members to put forth their best efforts.

Speaker 8 26:23

I am amazed at the energy she brings to our programming. She is leading the effort to stall gentrification of the neighborhood. She's a remarkable woman. And so I say thank you, Sophie, for your extraordinary contributions and commitment to making a difference.

Speaker 2 26:42

My name is Tamika Crudup and I'm the facility manager at Shiloh Center, and Sophie Dixon is a beacon to our community. She values and respects unity, growth and commitment, and it's all about the community as a whole and moving the needle forward. She's passionate about giving back and fighting a good fight that needs to be fought for us as a stronghold community. There hasn't been one time that Ms Sophie has ever told me no, and I have called her for advice, support or anything that I may have needed. She has always told me that we will work together to continue to strive to make change for the betterment of the people that we serve, our family and friends and everyone in the surrounding community. It is an honor to give Ms Sophie her flowers, as she is so deserving of them. I could say so much about Ms Sophie, but just know that she passed a powerful blow in that small voice of hers and I thank her every day for everything that she has ever done for me.

Speaker 6 27:47

My name is Johanna Johnson and I would like to tell about how Ms Sophie Dixon had an impact in my life. She has helped me in so many ways. While moving here to Asheville in the shallow area, I met her at the radio station where she worked at WRES by doing an ad for my opening of my beauty shop. She was always there to encourage me and to help me write my article out, and she was always there when I called. If she didn't answer, she would always call me back. No matter what program I put on, she was there to encourage me at the Shallow Community Center and Association. I just want to let Ms Sophie Dixon know that I love you and I appreciate all the things that you've done. I just can't name them all. Ms Sophie Dixon, I just want to let you know that I love you. God bless you.

Speaker 1 28:36

Hey, this is Antoinette Mosley. I'll start by saying I'm so honored to speak regarding Ms Sophie, not only as Asheville's vice mayor, but as a native of this city. As vice mayor, but as a native of this city, we're shaped by the legacy of those who have poured their heart into our community. For me, ms Sophie Dixon is one of those pillars. Ms Sophie's impact on my life and on Asheville as a whole cannot be overstated. She has been a guiding force, demonstrating what it means to serve with unwavering dedication and love to leading in the NAACP and strengthening neighborhoods like Shiloh. Ms Sophie has set a standard for what true leadership looks like. She has not only preserved history, she has made it. She has not only built community but has nurtured it.

Speaker 4 29:46

Of all those efforts that you've made in Shiloh, what is it that you're most proud of?

Speaker 5 29:53

Well, I guess I'm most proud of the fact that I've been able to have a home and it's my home. When I grew up, as I said, it was in Stumptown and that wasn't exactly my grandmother's house, but it was a white house that we know it now. And to be able to save, to say I can leave something for my children. I have three and I lost. My oldest daughter passed, so I have two children left, but I have a ton of grandkids and two great-grandkids Wow.

Speaker 4 30:26

Look, the family won't continue.

Speaker 5 30:30

That's right. I'm won't leave some legacy here, right, but it really is, it's really great. So when they all come for Christmas my daughter she said so I went to Baltimore or to Maryland and spent Christmas with them and it was just seeing family. I mean I thought I have family. It's beautiful.

Speaker 4 30:48

And it really speaks to what the point of all the work that you do is. Right, Like, at the very core, it's the children, it's the family, it's that legacy and it's having something to give to them. It's really beautiful. I want to close with just a little dreaming, Ms Sophie. What is your dream for your community?

Speaker 5 31:08

Well dream for my community is just what I see happening now is that we just started having our association meetings. We just have little core people, you know, coming in. Of course, I'm sure that Hurricane made a big difference in how good some of us and most people see things now, but the last two months that we've gotten back together we have had so many people come to our association meetings that we have had to run out of space. We've had to put up more tables and chairs. I'm like great, but I think it's inspiring, you know, to see that.

Speaker 5 31:43

And we had a wonderful event on Saturday actually, and there was a young lady who grew up in Chalo and she has written a book called Threads for Tanya Davis, and so she had a book signing on Saturday and I was a little shaky because you never know how these things are going to go off and I wouldn't want anybody to be discouraged after putting that much effort into it. There were so many people, they ran out of space, she ran out of books and I mean it was just marvelous, you know. So that's what you hope will happen and we'll keep making that happen. The community has finally arrived. It's arrived, and so I mean there were tears and everything going on Saturday, but it was really great, truly beautiful.

Wrap UP: Community Speaks!

Speaker 4 32:27

Ms Sophie, it has been such a joy to spend some time with you. Well, thank you, thank you and thank you, listeners, for helping us honor Miss Sophie's tremendous community impact. Hopefully you're leaving this discussion with some inspiration about the ways you can impact your community and your direct spheres of influence. If you're already working to make your own community better, keep it up and remember to rest when you need it. As Miss Sophie said, not everything is going to work, but don't get discouraged To send us off some more love from Ms Sophie.

Speaker 5 32:56

Hello, my name is Norma Baines. Sophie Dixon has been the president of the Shallow Community Association for many years. She volunteers for many organizations. I admire her leadership and willingness to manage all the duties, activities and complex situations. She is a joy to work with.

Speaker 8 33:21

My name is Ellen McDaniel and I'm calling for Sophie Dixon on behalf of her accomplishments that she's made. She is in an organization with me, the Order of the Eastern Stars in Nashville, and also at the Shallow Community Center. I have worked with Sophie most of my young adult life until now as a senior, but she is an outstanding person. She has a personality that's above and beyond and she is willing and able to do what she can for others and she will just help in any way she's needed and she's very instrumental on finding out stuff for people that have needs, especially learning some about the scholarships that are out there for young people, and just a big help in the community and outside of the community in South Asheville area. It's been a pleasure leaving this message about her. I've known her mostly all my life. She knows you and you're a friend. She's a true friend and she is a special person.

Speaker 5 34:29

My name is Patricia Cook. I have known Sophie for a lot of years. I had the opportunity to volunteer at the radio station. I saw how knowledgeable and efficient Sophie was in a lot of areas and how she treated everyone with respect. It was indeed a pleasure to work with her. Hi, this is Laura.

Speaker 4 34:51

Lee Petritska. I've known Ms Sophie Dixon for almost 15 years and she is an inspiration.

Speaker 5 35:00

She is tirelessly advocating for social justice and making the community a better place. I feel her heart is so beautiful beautiful and she is so strong. I am Johnny Grant, owner publisher of Urban News and a proud native of Asheville. It is my distinct pleasure to recognize Ms Sophie Dixon and the impact she continues to have throughout Asheville, buston County and Western North Carolina. Ms Sophie Dixon is a woman of great dignity and quiet strength. She is an example of what it means to be a consensus builder, a civic engager and an overall compassionate human being. Ms Sophie's commitment to preserving and celebrating our rich cultural heritage is also commendable. Her charitable work and efforts to educate ongoing generations about our collective community has deep appreciation for our shared history. Thank you, ms Soti, for your tireless dedication, your unwavering spirit and your boundless love.

Speaker 5 36:12

Hi, this is Linda McDaniel, Mrs Dixon this is a reflection of your service to all people in the community. Your work in the community and across lines show your commitment to strong neighborhoods, helping people to thrive, and you have been a force in your volunteer work, organizations, community church and everything you touch. I am so proud to know you and so proud to be a friend of you, and it's been amazing how you've grown and how you've led the community to be productive, fulfilling, warm and gracious, just like you are. I'm in awe of your dedication, your grace, your humility and your kindness to others.