Kevin Riordan: Anthony Joseph Dixon Resource Center: A mother's effort to honor a fallen son

"If my son was here," Jackie Dixon smiles, "he'd be saying, 'Go, Mom!' "

Ever since Army Spec. 4 Anthony Joseph Dixon was killed in Iraq on Aug. 1, 2004, his mother has honored his memory by serving families and individuals in need.

"I'd always wanted to open up a center to help the community," says the retired 62-year-old Lindenwold educator, who is a nondenominational Christian minister. "After Anthony passed, I decided it had to happen.

"Being a special-ed teacher, I saw a lot of families in need," she adds. "I saw a lot of children in need. That was my starting point."

I meet Jackie at the Anthony Joseph Dixon Resource Center, a volunteer operation on White Horse Pike in Berlin Borough. The programs, all free, range from tutoring to dance classes, from marriage counseling to church services. What the center lacks in funds, it makes up for in faith.

"God gave me the strength to do whatever I had to do," explains Jackie, the center's unpaid director. She's also chaplain of the New Jersey chapter of American Gold Star Mothers Inc., the organization for women who have lost children in battle.

"I was running on everybody else's steam, and my own. I guess I didn't want to come down to the reality of Anthony being gone," recalls the mother of five and grandmother of nine.

After Anthony was killed at 20, she says, "reporters were trying to get me to say negative things about the president, and I said, 'No, I won't do that.' I still think America's a great country. I love America. And my son did what he wanted to do.

"I believe that God's will will be done. I believe it was God's will to call Anthony home."

A painting of Jackie's handsome, serious-looking youngest son, in uniform, occupies a place of pride in the brightly decorated storefront center. A wrestling schedule from 1999, Anthony's final season at what was then Overbrook High School in Lindenwold, is on the opposite wall.

He "was a very adventurous young man," Jackie says. "I say he went into the service because he ran out of things to do in New Jersey. He was bold and brave, and I think he really wanted to help his country."

The menu of services offered by the center has evolved. Jackie began by trying to help pretty much everyone, including those who were homeless, jobless, and in need of food. "Our focus has changed more to support groups, and mentoring, and literacy," she says.

"We help people get their GEDs, starting wherever they are. If they have a second-grade education, I'll build up on that."

She calls the work "a joy." The least joyous part? "When I can't meet the needs of a family or an individual. . . . We'd like to help everybody, but we can't."

Money is a constant struggle. The annual fund-raiser, "Honor Our Fallen Hero," will offer "food, music, and fun" at the center from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 31.

As I get ready to leave, I notice an easel in a corner. Someone has written, in blue letters, a small organization with a big heart.

"That's us," Jackie says.