Sean Dixon Memorial Park honors a brave Patchogue-Medford student

Sean Patrick Dixon was an average kid who loved his family and friends and loved to play sports, mostly lacrosse. His lacrosse number was 38. Sean went to Patchogue-Medford High School.

On July 27, 2015, Sean was so excited to finally get his braces off, no one would have thought that later that day he would break his femur, changing his and his family’s life forever. When he went to the doctor, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, which is a rare bone cancer. He was only 14. The doctor gave him a lot of medicine, and he had many surgeries, including the removal of his leg.

Sean was a hero because in his last days he never worried about himself. He worried about his family and friends and how they would live without him. Sean wanted to be a police officer like his grandfather, and on his 16th birthday, he was invited by the Suffolk County Police Department to be a detective for the day. Sean died on Oct. 17, 2017. The whole community came together to honor him and wore yellow ribbons for cancer. Teammates wore No. 38 on their helmets.

Last year Peppermint Park in Medford was renamed to Sean Dixon Memorial Park. This was his favorite park growing up as a kid. Everyone came together to celebrate the renaming of the park. There were cops everywhere, and it was raining. Now everyone can go there to remember him.

Jennifer Hempfling’s fifth-grade class, Canaan Elementary School, Patchogue