Discover Dixon receives three state awards for ‘Excellence in Revitalization’

DIXON — Discover Dixon was presented three awards Nov. 13 at the Lieutenant Governor Awards for Excellence in Revitalization ceremony.

The awards were presented to Discover Dixon’s Events Director Jennifer Lang, Service and Outreach Director Amber Schmidt, and Sauk Valley Community College’s Impact Program and Executive Director of Regional Economic Development and Donor Relations Kim Ewoldsen during the annual Illinois Main Street conference.

Lang said her organization won the awards for efforts in the Economic Vitality, Organization and Volunteer Recognition categories.

“The Economic Vitality award was for our Dixon City Market,” Lang said. “This was our 10th year having the city market and the growth has been amazing. We have three success stories of people being at the market and then going on to own brick-and-mortar buildings. We used to have 20 to 30 vendors. We’ve been able to sustain that for the past three years but we’ve been having anywhere between 50 and 60 vendors now each week. It’s been really exciting.”

Lang said Discover Dixon won the award in Organization for their one-day event involving over 200 local elementary school students.

“We just celebrated 30 years of doing our fourth-grade tours,” Lang said. “We bring all public and private schools’ fourth graders on one day to the downtown, and we teach them about the anatomy of a Main Street building. Mr. Jim Dixon is one of our presenters and is a descendant of Father John Dixon. We get into the Old Settlers cabin, and they get to learn about the architecture and history of Dixon.”

After the event, Lang said the students return to their schools to work on an architecture project.

“It’s amazing to see what buildings they come up with, as well as the use of materials,” Lang said. “We judge the projects and give a Merit of Completion certificate to every student who does the project. Then, we pick the top three to be awarded a different certificate and provide them with a $10 gift card to Books on First.”

Discover Dixon’s final award for Volunteer Recognition comes from their involvement in SVCC’s Impact Program.

The Impact Program helps local students pay for their tuition by completing volunteer service hours within their community. Impact students have the opportunity to earn three years of paid tuition and fees, which can equate to a $30,000 scholarship. Students must maintain a minimum 2.0 grade-point average each semester and complete 25 hours of community service each year. They must also be enrolled in a certificate, degree or transfer program.

Lang said Discover Dixon helps provide Impact students with volunteer opportunities.

“I use and rely on those Impact students for roughly 80% of the events I put on,” Lang said. “It’s an amazing program where not only do I teach them but I also learn a thing or two from them as well.”