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FBI Special Agent Martha Dixon

and

The Martha Fund

Martha loved children. At her wedding only ten weeks before her death, she had all 22 of her nieces and nephews precede her down the aisle. This is just one example of the part children played in Martha’s life and future. Because of that spirit, Martha's family and friends developed The Martha Fund to try to serve children by building playgrounds in Martha's memory.

The Martha Fund has provided financial support for several projects to date, including the Holy Family Institute playground, the Bird Park playground, the Beltzhoover Elementary School Playground, the Jefferson Elementary School playground, the Holy Rosary Elementary School playground, the Edgeworth Elementary School playground and the renovation of Dixon Field.  Our donations have totaled over $100,000 to date. Finally, the dream was realized Saturday April 7th, 2007 with the unveiling of the brand new Martha's Playground, opened to the public for the first time. Since then the Martha Fund has continued making donations to assist a number of projects in the Pittsburgh area.

Martha’s Run is the Martha Fund’s primary fundraiser. It is a 10K race, 2 mile run and 1-mile walk through the tree-lined streets of Mt. Lebanon in the spring of each year. In 2004 a Children's Race was added with great success. Click on the Martha's Run link at the top to see how to register.

Each year we seek corporate support to help us meet the costs of Martha’s Run, and we offer various forms of recognition or advertising in return. This ranges from placing the corporate logo on the 25,000 race applications we distribute annually, to putting the name on the sleeve of the Run T-shirt, to signage at the start or finish of the Run. We always welcome support for Martha’s Run and directly to the Martha Fund. Over the years Martha’s Run has gotten extensive media coverage, including coverage on TV news programs.

The Martha Fund is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, so that donations made to it are tax deductible to the donor. It is set up as a Trust Fund, with a Board of Directors and trustees consisting at present of members of Martha's family. Martha's father, Ken Dixon, the retired Allegheny County Director of Elections, was the Chairman of the Board of Directors and one of five trustees until his death in 2000.

To date the Martha Fund has spent none of the donations contributed to it on salaries, administrative costs or any other costs that did not directly further its charitable goals. All of the board members or assistants are volunteers. Its plans are to continue to minimize its costs.

The ongoing goal of our fundraising effort is to raise funds to pay, in part or in whole, for site preparation, purchase and erection of equipment, and other necessary activities for minor or major playground projects to be built in Martha's memory other than the Martha's Playground in Mount Lebanon. We would like a donation from your foundation to help us meet this goal.

In return for donations the Martha Fund will provide public recognition of donors who are interested in being acknowledged.

The Martha Fund appreciates your consideration of a donation to help it further its goal of building playgrounds for children in the Pittsburgh area.