Six-year-old Alexis Dixon had only one thing to say to the attendees of her weekend birthday party at Carpenter’s Park in Milton.
“Thank you,” she said.
Twenty residents helped organize and attend Dixon’s second birthday party on Saturday, after reading her mother’s post on the Facebook.com group forum titled ‘Santa Rosa County FL Chat.’
Click here to see photos from Alexis Dixon's Birthday Party on Saturday
“That was where the venting came in,” said Alexis’s mother Khia.
Khia took to the Facebook page after no one showed for her daughter’s birthday party the prior weekend at Chuck E. Cheese in Pensacola.
“Everybody said they were going to come, but then nobody showed,” said Alexis’s father Moses, who works for the United States Navy on Naval Air Station Whiting Field. “She was pretty heart-broken about it.”
The Dixon family moved to Milton in 2013.
Fortunately, the staff at Chuck E. Cheese did their part in order to take the six-year-olds sorrows away by making sure she spent plenty of time with the Chuck E., the themed restaurant’s popular mouse.
After the post went online, several residents wanted to make it up to the family which recently moved to the area from Virginia Beach. Organizers asked the family to meet at the park on Saturday.
Longtime Milton resident’s Jim and Jeanine Turner helped by bringing a birthday cake, – featuring decorations from her favorite Disney film ‘Frozen’− cupcakes and a present.
“Well, I thought lets have (a birthday party) here, its local everybody can meet each other, make new friends and have a birthday party for this nice little girl,” Jim, a retired military member, said. “It’s nice when people come together like this.”
Bonnie Nelson said having no one show up for a six-year-olds birthday party was unacceptable.
“She’s got to have a real birthday party,” Nelson said. “I’m glad there was such a good turnout…(this) restored my faith in people.”
After learning about what other residents were doing, Khia said she became emotional.
“I began crying,” she said. “These are people that don’t know us.”
Moses said he anticipates further meeting with the residents who helped make their daughter’s sixth birthday a memorable one.
“I honestly did not think something like this could happen,” Moses said. “I’m very glad that there are really good people still left in this world.”
NAS Whiting Field officials say plenty of options available for transitioning military families
Moving from different location to different location is normal part of any military family’s life, which can create challenges for everyone within the family unit. No one knows this more than the Dixon family, who moved to Milton in fall of 2013 from Virginia Beach. The family’s father, Moses relocated as part of his job in the U.S. Navy to work on Naval Air Station Whiting Field. Recently, the family’s six-year-old daughter, Alexis was stood up at her sixth birthday party.
Fortunately, several Milton residents came to the family’s aid by providing a birthday party at Carpenter’s Park in Milton in which more than 20 adults and kids attended. Those residents learned about Alexis’s ordeal after reading about it from an online post made by her mother on social media.
Bill Lawson, the director of the Fleet and Family Support Center, said a third of Whiting Field’s population is relocated on an annual basis. Many of the military installations offer services to assist families and individuals dealing with relocation.
“Relocation is a big part of the services that we offer,” Lawson said.
The Fleet and Family Support Center offers several different services and specialists, which assist families and individuals through multiple resources available.
Darryl Johnson, a relocation specialist at the support center said there are several opportunities available both inside and outside a military installation.
“The biggest thing is meeting people at a church or an other place of worship,” Johnson said.
Johnson also suggests subscribing to a local newspaper to read about upcoming events or visiting a local chamber of commerce, which would put military members in contact with all of the community organizations available in the area.
Lawson said the support center also regularly updates their Facebook page about upcoming events located both inside and outside the base. For more information on the Fleet and Family Support Center visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/NASWF.FleetandFamily. The facility can also be reached by phone at 623-7177, Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Residents surprise child with birthday party (PHOTOS)