WATERVILLE — Salvation Army majors Karin and David Dickson hoped to return to Waterville one day to run the local corps.

They got their wish.

Additional Photos

NEW DIRECTORS: Karin and David Dickson are the new directors of the Salvation Army in Waterville. Photo by Jeff Pouland

The couple are the new directors of the Salvation Army here, arriving recently from Burlington, Vt., where they led the corps there for six years.

They succeed captains Bill and Stephanie Thompson, who left June 27 to take the Dicksons’ positions.

“We’re just really happy to be here,” Karin Dickson, 62, said Tuesday at the 225 Main St. office. “We’re excited for all that the future holds, working with the community. Steph made it known to us that this community pulls together when there’s a need, that you just let it be known. That’s a real positive plus.”

Karin Dickson’s roots reach back to Plymouth, where she grew up, and starting in the early 1970s the couple worked in the area and were active in the Waterville corps.

Karin Dickson taught children at the former Marie Bradford School in Pittsfield. The pair also worked in the late 1970s as house parents for Sebasticook Farms, which served adults with special needs. Later, David Dickson worked in Burnham at Ethan Allen.

During that time, they got involved in the Waterville Salvation Army teaching Sunday school and visiting nursing homes.

Their involvement with the corps started even earlier. She met David, who grew up in Cambridge, Mass., at a Salvation Army youth retreat in Provincetown, Mass., in 1967. Both were Salvation Army church members. They married in 1975, and have two daughters and three granddaughters.

“David is a fifth generation Salvationist, so our daughters are sixth generation and our granddaughters are seventh,” Karin Dickson said.

During their time in Waterville, “We felt the call to officership and we went to the seminary — the Salvation Army School for Officer Training, in Suffern, N.Y.,” Karen Dickson said. “That was 32 years ago, so we’ve come full circle. We’re happy to be home.”

Since then, they’ve served in Maine, Vermont, Ohio, New York and New Hampshire.

In Burlington, they ran a soup kitchen that fed 75 to 125 people six nights a week, she said. They also developed a state-certified after-school program.

“We tutored kids and worked closely with the school system,” she said. “We had a great relationship with Champlain College. They used us as one of their training sites for their students and that, hopefully, is an ongoing program Stephanie and Bill (Thompson) will be involved with there.”

When the Dicksons worked at the Salvation Army in Laconia, N.H., they developed the Carey House, a homeless shelter.

The Waterville corps is smaller than the one in Burlington, according to David Dickson, 63. In Burlington, the couple ran four Salvation Army thrift stores and a warehouse before closing one store; they also ran the church. Waterville has only one thrift store.

One of the Thompsons’ recommendations — and goals — for the Waterville corps was to move the Salvation Army office to a larger building. The current one is cramped and inadequate, they said. The Dicksons agree.

“I know the building is insufficient,” Karin Dickson said. “I think probably our goal is to continue with the vision that Bill and Steph and our board had — to find another building sufficient for the needs, and to expand our programs.”

For now, the Dicksons are getting acclimated to the corps and the area, meeting people, and re-connecting with relatives who live in the area.

“Every morning we get out of bed and thank the Lord for bringing us home, and for the opportunities that are going to come our way every day,” Karin Dickson said. “We just want to make a difference.”

Her husband concurred. “It’s meeting the needs of the folks — whether it be physical needs or spiritual needs.”

Amy Calder — 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com

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