Rotary Club continues tradition with Ford dictionary donation

LYNN – Thousands of third graders across the city are scribing their names behind the front cover of brand new dictionaries this week thanks to the generosity of the Lynn Rotary Club.For the third year running, the Rotary has donated a brand new dictionary to every third grader in the city, including at the Ford School, where Rotary President Michele Desmarais and Secretary Joyce Elliott joined Principal Claire Crane and Superintendent Catherine Latham in personally passing out books to students Wednesday morning.”It goes along with Rotary International’s efforts, which has targeted third graders. I enjoy doing it and being able to be a part of the community and give something back,” said Desmarais. “It is nice to be able to supply these kids with dictionaries with all of the budget issues that are going on.”The brand new books also fit in with the third grade curriculum, where students learn phonics, abbreviations and parts of speech, and also contain additional information like maps, planetary guides, braille and sign language.As Elliott pushed the cart of books into each individual classroom, students’ eyes lit up at the thought of receiving a free book that they could use in school and take home at the end of the year. For many, the dictionary will be the first addition to their home libraries, and a new way to get help with homework or study in their free time.Teachers encouraged students to thumb through the books and were already talking about how the students can utilize the dictionaries for current lessons before Rotary members even left the classroom.”It is so generous of the club – I can’t even tell you – this is just so lovely,” said Latham, who also accepted an invitation to be an honorary Rotarian. “This has to be the most basic educational book they have in their libraries, but it is so important.”The Lynn Rotary Club is a community service club that meets Thursday afternoons at 1:15 at the Porthole Pub. All members of the community are encouraged to attend a meeting and consider joining the organization.