School pays homage to Dickson
Scholarship set up in honour of football player
In life, Ashton Dickson was a highly skilled football player, a kid with a tremendous smile who made others around him better.
On June 23, the former running back with the St. Francis Xavier X-Men of Antigonish, N.S., who was shot and killed in downtown Ottawa nearly a year ago, will be remembered at a dinner/dance with the funds raised going to the Ashton J. Dickson Memorial Award, a new scholarship program for the X-Men.
“I feel wonderful (about the award) because I know his memory will go through other players,” said Donna Dickson, Ashton’s mother. “I want his memory and what he stood for to live on.”
With the X-Men in 2015, Dickson was amazing with the football in his hands, rushing for 866 yards, with five touchdowns, finishing with 1,320 all-purpose yards. He finished runner-up to Calgary’s Andrew Buckley for the Hec Crighton Trophy (given to Canadian college football’s most outstanding player). Dickson left St. FX as the school’s all-time leading rusher with 3,178 yards and would also get invited to the CFL’s East Combine.
X-Men coach Gary Waterman spoke of Dickson’s impact on the team, noting: “Ashton had a great presence, he really was a hardworking guy who was passionate about the game of football. The passion and enthusiasm he brought really rubbed off on the guys. He left an impact with a lot of people. They looked up to him as a guy with great leadership skills. The competitive spirit he brought fuelled a lot of the guys in terms of work ethic and just competing. He definitely left a positive impact.”
The dinner and dance will be held at Ottawa’s St. Anthony ’s Banquet Hall, with cocktails at 5:30 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., followed by a dance. There will be door prizes, a silent auction and a cash bar and guests are asked to wear blue and white formal attire if possible. Tickets, at $50 each (table of eight is $350), can be purchased at alumni.stfx.ca/AshtonDickson. Deadline for ticket sales is June 15.
The memorial award scholarship (which will start at $500) will be for an incoming X-Men player out of the Ottawa area who demonstrates financial need, has high character and excels in school. He must also be a good citizen and come from a single-parent family.