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Peggar Dixon

dixon_peggar.jpg“I remember attending the Jubilee conference the first year it was called ‘Jubilee,’” says Peggar Dixon. “It was at the William Penn Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh and the place was totally packed out. I remember looking around at all those other students and thinking, ‘These are Christians and they are just as excited as we are at Alderson-Broaddus. There are hundreds of us, and we’re from all over the place!’”

Today, Peggar works as a financial advisor and operates her own catering business. But after her 1979 graduation from Alderson-Broaddus College in Philippi, West Virginia, she served several years on CCO staff herself, and even directed the Jubilee conference for several years.

Peggar was a sophomore at Alderson-Broaddus when the CCO first arrived on campus—all five staff workers. Jeff Winter and Gail Heffner served as resident directors, Judy Winter was the school nurse, Ken Heffner was the Director of Student Activities, and Ken Wagoner was Associate Dean of Men. While there had been a student-led Christian fellowship group on campus before the CCO arrived, it didn’t draw a huge number of students. The CCO staff expected maybe 30 or 40 students to attend the first Celebration Circle fellowship meeting they hosted. They were completely unprepared when hundreds of students showed up.

For the rest of her college career, Peggar immersed herself in the CCO-led ministry. She served as an RA in the freshman women’s residence hall where Gail was the RD. She spent a lot of time with Judy Winter, and spent a summer with Jeff and Judy in Wildwood, New Jersey for a Christian beach outreach. A few years later, in 1983, Jeff Winter initiated what became the CCO-sponsored Ocean City Beach Project which takes place every summer, and which Peggar herself directed for several years.

“I really grew in my understanding of calling during my college years,” says Peggar. “I came to understand that when God calls you as a Christian, you can serve God wherever you are—not just as an ordained minister or a missionary. I learned that my faith had implications for my vocational life, whatever it may be. I’m grateful that these staff people came into my life to open up the fullness of the gospel.”

Today, Peggar lives in Pittsburgh and is an elder at Beulah Presbyterian Church, where she serves on the Fellowship Committee and regularly teaches adult Sunday school classes. She recently completed a class on prayer for the over-60 adults, and she is starting to co-teach a class which will equip adults to study Scripture more fully.

“I made life-long friends as a result of being a part of the CCO’s ministry, and I still carry that vision of changing the world,” Peggar says. “I have a strong sense of my calling to be faithful where I am. God is going to change things, and I am called to be faithful in what I say, how I live, and everything I do.”