784 third graders to get their own dictionaries
Submitted
On Thursday, the Westfield Lions Club completed the delivery of 114 dictionaries to the Oak Trace Elementary School third graders. It was the third of six stops the Lions will make to deliver Webster dictionaries to all the third graders in the Westfield Washington school system.
This is the 10th year the Westfield club has participated in the “Dictionary Project” – a nationwide effort to distribute free dictionaries to third-grade students. The Dictionary Project was started in Georgia in 1992 and since then almost 36 million children all over the U.S. have received dictionaries. The program has been adopted and refined by individuals, businesses, and civic organizations all over the country, including the Westfield Lions Club.
The Westfield Lions Club purchases the dictionaries from the Dictionary Project and then schedules deliveries with each of the elementary school principals. The Lions have been well received by the students, teachers, and principals.
Lions Gary Smith, Craig Cooley, Melissa Paradise, Jerry Kirby, and Carrie Larrison pass out dictionaries to Westfield third graders. (Photo provided by Westfield Lions Club)
“It’s a lot of fun for us Lions to visit with all of these third graders and give them a little background on what the Lions Club is all about,” said Lion Jeff Larrison, who serves as the chairman of their Dictionary Project. “Some of the students have heard about us and our programs or have been to our clubhouse for an event. And it makes our day to see how excited they get when they find out they each are getting their very own dictionaries.”
Larrison said that over the past 10 years, the club has presented more than 6,300 dictionaries to Westfield third graders.
“Now that we’ve been at this for a while, we’re getting recognized by kids and families when they see us out in public in our Lions Club shirts,” Larrison said. “A lot of times we’ll hear them tell their parents that we’re the ‘book guys.’”
Lions Clubs International is the largest service club organization in the world. Its 1.4 million members in more than 46,000 clubs are serving communities in 207 countries and geographical areas around the globe. Since 1917, Lions clubs have aided the blind and visually impaired, championed youth initiatives and strengthened local communities through hands-on service and humanitarian projects.
The Westfield Lions Club has been serving the citizens of Westfield and Hamilton County since 1930. For more information about the Westfield Lions Club, including finding out how to become a member, visit WestfieldLions.org.