Operation Dixville

“Urban renewal, one heart at a time”
by Dave Hall
Operation Dixville/First Baptist Church Brunswick

Chris Sharer, a 9th-grade volunteer from the St. Williams Catholic Church youth group, helps others paint the siding of a house on Wolf Street in Brunswick during last summer’s Dixville Project on Tuesday, June 23, 2009. Youth from all over the community will come together again this summer to continue what project coordinator Dave Hall of First Baptist Brunswick calls, “Urban renewal, one heart at a time.” (photos by Eliot VanOtteren)

Imagine looking out your window one hot and muggy afternoon in July, and seeing dozens of students piling out of vans and buses across the street from your house. While you watch, they spend the next several hours transforming a yard overrun with disposable items, litter, and seasons of uncut grass, brush and trees into a beautifully manicured yard.

Now imagine waking up the next day, and seeing more students coming out of more buses to that same yard. You watch again, this time from the shade of your porch, as they power wash the house, and make minor exterior repairs. They wave as they leave, and you wonder- “who are these kids?” For the third day in a row, another group of kids, this time with ladders and paintbrushes arrive, and over the next few days, another home in need becomes a clean, bright place for the neighborhood to be proud of. Then you learn: It was free.

This scene is repeated over and over each summer as Operation Dixville pours as many as 2200 volunteers into the city centers residential areas. Operation Dixville functions jointly with local churches, city and county offices, and other entities such as the Georgia Baptist Convention and SuperWOW camps on Jekyll Island. Keep Brunswick and the Golden Isles Beautiful is a partner, as is Weed and Seed and The Gathering Place. Operation Dixville gets its name from a 12-block effort in the Dixville area of Brunswick.

From left, 9th-grade volunteers from the St. Williams Catholic Church youth group, Abby
Rogstad, Savannah Barrow and Nick Rogstad, help other volunteers gather trash from an empty corner lot on Wolf Street in Brunswick during last summer’s Operation Dixville on Tuesday, June 23, 2009. (photos by Eliot VanOtteren)

Operation Dixville gives students a chance to learn work ethic and basic skills needed in everyday life. Students pay their own transportation, housing and food costs to attend Operation Dixville, which means that the project can operate with volunteer staff. Every cent donated to Operation Dixville goes toward materials and supplies.

Students report an eagerness to share the love they have for God, and what He means to them, with the community they work in. It is this faith that drives them to spend summer vacation working in the full sun and heat of the Golden Isles.

Operation Dixville will be working in the Norwich Corridor again this year, with most of the work going on during the weeks between June 14 through July 4.

Operation Dixville works at homes of single women, senior adults and the handicapped. They will work on homes that have a male presence, as long as the male is willing to assist with the labor. They do not work on rental homes.

Operation Dixville will again work on cleaning streets and alleyways, and will work with the Norwich corridor’s business owners as well.

Operation Dixville is open to anyone with time and energy that they are willing to spare. Materials and supplies are always needed. Donations in cash, materials, supplies or tools, are handled through the student ministry offices at First Baptist Church Brunswick, or Wesley St Simons Island United Methodist Church.

For more information, to volunteer, or to make a donation to Operation Dixville please contact Dave Hall or Chandis Buck at 912-265-4150, or email us at dhall@fbcbrunswick.com.