Sophie Dixon

UNC Community Engagement Award Recipient

Sophie Dixon a former president of the Asheville Buncombe County NAACP and Shiloh community leader, was named Asheville’s Volunteer of the Year in 2019. She was born and raised in Stumptown, once a black neighborhood within the boundaries of Asheville’s Riverside Cemetery. Stumptown residents were later evicted and homes destroyed as part of “urban renewal,” and the community no longer exists. Dixon graduated from Stephens-Lee High School, married, and moved to Shiloh with her husband Daniel. She raised three children and worked at Taylor Instruments for more than 35 years, earning an associate degree from A-B Tech while working. Dixon’s effort and dedication played a role in the founding of radio station WRES and the Goombay Festival, and the preservation of the YMI Cultural Center. She has facilitated many meetings of the Shiloh Community Association, and led the effort to build a roadside stand for the SCA Community Garden.

Norma S. Baynes

UNC Community Engagement Award Recipient

Norma S. Baynes, a native of Asheville’s Shiloh community and a nurse by profession, has lived a life of dedicated community service. A graduate of Stephens-Lee High School and Winston-Salem State University with a B.S. in nursing, Baynes worked in the African American ward at Memorial Mission Hospital, and then at hospitals in Washington, D.C. including Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Upon returning to Asheville, she helped found and lead the Shiloh Community Association and she currently oversees the SCA Community Garden. A mother of three, she has been a Sunday school teacher and deaconess at Rock Hill Missionary Baptist Church. She has been president of the Busy Hands Club and the North Carolina Association of Senior Citizens Cubs District 9A. She won a Dorothy Richardson Resident Leadership Award from Neighborhood Works America, has served on the board of Neighborhood Housing Services of Asheville, and was Volunteer of the Year at The Salvation Army Center of Hope.