Hollister
– Thanks to the Elks Lodge of Hollister, every third-grader in
the Hollister School District is scoring a dictionary.
Hollister – Thanks to the Elks Lodge of Hollister, every third-grader in the Hollister School District is scoring a dictionary.
The Elks Lodge is handing out more than 800 dictionaries to students here, chaplain Rick Flores said. Third grade is when students begin to learn how to use a dictionary, he said.
On Wednesday, Flores and Thomas Gray carted several boxes of dictionaries from classroom to classroom at Gabilan Hills Elementary School.
Jackie Torres, whose 8-year-old son, Gilbert Torres Jr., received a dictionary at Gabilan Hills, said she had been thinking about buying one for Gilbert.
“My son always asks, ‘What does this word mean? What does that word mean?'” Torres said.
Torres hopes the Elks and other organizations will continue to help schools with book donations. Flores said the donation was the start of a tradition for the local Elks Lodge.
Teacher Tami Ortiz said her students were excited when they saw the dictionaries arrive in their classroom.
“Dictionary use is huge in third grade and this particular class loves dictionaries,” Ortiz said.
Eight-year-old Kirsten Reynolds said she appreciates the dictionary because she would like to be a writer someday.
Karsten Scoggin, also 8, said having a dictionary of her own means more independence.
“Now I don’t have to ask my parents how to spell words,” she said.
Before handing out the dictionaries, Flores addressed the class. He told the children that owning a dictionary would help them down the road.
“When you get further on in your years, junior high, high school, college, your dictionaries are going to get more advanced,” Flores told the class. “And this will help you in the right direction.”
The Elks Lodge is handing out a 366-page dictionary called “The Best Dictionary for Students” as part of the organization’s nationwide Project Dictionary. The project donates more than 800,000 dictionaries every year, Flores said.
“A lot of these kids can’t go out and afford to buy a dictionary,” Flores said.
Gabilan Hills Principal Dennis Kurtz said the dictionary donations are a great help in building students’ vocabularies.
“Dictionaries are an important tool to help them go after these words,” Kurtz said. “It gives them a feeling of adultness to have one that’s theirs.”
But students were not the only ones receiving the dictionaries.
“We give them out to the teachers,” Flores said. “The principal gets one so that way they can go along with them and they’re all on the same page.”
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected].
