Each year the Kiwanis Club of Transfer purchases dictionaries to distribute to third graders in the Reynolds School District. This service project is part of a larger, nationwide effort called The Dictionary Project, which aims to “assist all students in becoming good writers, active readers, creative thinkers, and resourceful learners by providing them with their own personal dictionary.”
“Reading makes a country great,” said Dan Resinger, club secretary. ” This program allows each of our students to have a dictionary with them all day long.” The students are able to use these dictionaries in class, for their homework, and when they discover new words while reading.
Transfer Kiwanians have been participating in the project for nine years and have distributed 840 dictionaries. 2019 was the first year that they also distributed thesaurusi to fifth graders, and they passed out 96. Many fifth graders commented that they still had and used the dictionaries that they had received two years prior.
This project has proven to be a success year after year. “The platform for all knowledge is online, the internet,” said Dan, “But the bedrock of knowledge is in books and in print.” One teacher noted that not only did her students appreciate the dictionaries but they found the extra information in the back very interesting. Each dictionary comes with a large reference section in the back with information on things like the states and the presidents.
