Arling "Dix" Brown III

 Arling “Dix” Brown III, 61, of Boise, Idaho, passed away on Sunday, July 12, 2015.

 In 2014, his philanthropy was featured in the Idaho Press.

 Advocates Against Family Violence honors eight local male role models

By ERIN BAMER

ebamer@idahopress.com

June 7, 2014

Dix Brown, left, hugs Advocates Against Family Violence Director Kim Ivacek, after being awarded a Men in the Top Tier award for his donations to the program. “If it had not been for his contributions, the program would not be able to sustain itself,” said Ivacek.

CALDWELL — The nonprofit organization Advocates Against Family Violence realizes the importance of positive male influence to the community’s children.

The organization works to prevent violence among families by promoting positive life choices among community members. On Friday, the organization honored eight men from Canyon County who exemplify positive male influence in their area of work with the first annual “Men in the Top Tier” award.

Shane Bauges, the organization’s grant administrator, said it’s usually the father’s job to teach their daughters what to expect from men and to teach their sons how to treat women. However, when a father is absent, it is up to other male role models in the community to do that job. He said the eight recipients of this award not only do that, but go above and beyond. Though this is the first year, Bauges said the organization plans to make it a tradition every year the week before Father’s Day.

This year’s recipients:

Milon McDaniel has worked for over 10 years with the Caldwell Rotary Club, which aims to raise funds for educational, health and other projects in the community. In 2010, he started a program called First Book, which has distributed over 1,400 books to Owyhee and Canyon County schools every year.

Josh Williamson works with the YMCA. As the director of the United Way of Treasure Valley’s P16 project, which promotes post-secondary education to Caldwell students, he has impacted over 500 children this year. Williamson is also a member of the Caldwell’s Youth Master Plan Committee, the Treasure Valley Education Partnership and was recently named the youth director at the Caldwell Family YMCA.

Ruben Lugo works with the Community Council of Idaho, which improves the social and economic status of local communities. He oversees the daily operations of 10 Head Start centers which provide services to over 800 participants and has dedicated his life to the empowerment and advancement of kids and families.

Rex Brown is a member of Witco, a nonprofit organization that provides rehabilitation to people with disabilities in the Treasure Valley. Brown is a children’s specialist and aids children with mental and behavioral issues. He said children with disabilities are in need of a father figure even more than other children in the community.

Sam Lungren works with the Nampa Exchange Club to promote Americanism, community service, youth activities and the prevention of child abuse. For the past 10 years, Lungren also coached children’s soccer.

Dwayne Evanson works with the Mentoring Network, which provides high-risk youth with school-based mentoring to strengthen communities. Evanson worked as a mentor for seven years and is now mentoring five men.

Archie Stradley has had 60 years of perfect attendance for the Kiwanis Club of Caldwell. Stradley helps give dictionaries to third-graders, provides scholarships for graduating seniors, collects and distributes wheelchairs and other medical equipment to children in need and is the official Caldwell Santa Claus.

The executive director of the organization, Kim Ivacek, stepped up to honor the final recipient of the award, Dix Brown, the organization’s MVP. After Dix was diagnosed with stage four cancer in 2013, he adopted the motto “be a better person.” Dix donated enough money to the organization to fully sustain its Teen Outreach program for 2014, allowing the organization to serve over 1,500 teens by March.

“Without him that program would not exist, and it would not be sustainable,” Ivacek said. “All of our other programs, we have to have some grant funding to help sustain, and this is the only program we have that is not grant funded and it’s fully sustainable by itself, because of Dix.”

Bauges stressed the importance of these positive role models in the community.

“Families where positive male influence is present, those children perform better academically, they get more involved with extra-curricular activities,” Bauges said. “Basically what it boils down to is knowing that you’re loved and somebody cares about you is, in essence, a hope creator.”