Seward Rotary Club has again presented dictionaries to third graders across Seward County
The Seward Rotary Club has again sponsored a free dictionary for all third grade students in the greater Seward Area, presenting dictionaries to third graders at Seward Elementary School and St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School in Seward, Our Redeemer Lutheran School in Staplehurst, and Centennial Elementary and St. Paul Lutheran School in Utica. Seward Rotarians personally deliver the dictionaries to the students and share the positives about owning a dictionary. Each student is encouraged to write their name in the dictionary and use it during their school years.
Teachers involved with the program included Amanda Clouse, Michelle Smith, Suzanne Paseka, Beth Bohuslavsky, and DeAnn Warren –all at the Seward Elementary, Laura Warriner and Dorothy Marshall-St. Vincent de Paul School, Charity Schafer –Our Redeemer in Staplehurst, Roberta Luce –St. Paul Lutheran in Utica, and Chrystal Jorgensen and Jared Zysset –Utica Centennial. Thanks to the generosity of the Truman Prange family and Milford Kiwanis, students at St. John Lutheran School in Seward and Milford Elmentary School in Milford also receive dictionaries, so that every third grader in Seward County is blessed by this project.
Rotarians presenting dictionaries include Chuck and Jan Matzke, Mike Meyer and Scott Bruick, Zane Francescato and Harrison Helmer, Clark Kolterman and Ken Schmieding, Shelly Nitz and Rick Grey, Makena Perdue and Brad Perdue, Ron Niemoth and Bea Niemoth and Jane Rehmer and Greg Zabka. Several members of the Concordia University Rotaract Club also helped with distribution of the books.
“This is a project we have promoted for years and happy to fund,” stated Rotary President Matt Dominy. “Last year, because of the Covid Pandemic, we were not able to present the dictionaries in person, and the member of the Rotary Club enjoy meeting and sharing the values of a dictionary with each student.”
The dictionary distributed is “The Best Dictionary for Students,” and features over 10,000 words with simple, child friendly definitions, plus pronunciation and parts of speech, additional information about punctuation, the nine parts of speech, weights and measures, longest word, Roman numeral, sign language, braille, periodic table of elements, multiplication table and a map of the United States and the state capitols.
The Dictionary Project is a charitable organization based in Charleston, South Carolina, USA and was founded by Mary French in 1995 to provide personal copies of a dictionary for third Grad student in the South Carolina Public School System. It has grown into a national organization. To date, over 31 million dictionaries have been donated to children in the United States and internationally. It is funded through individual donations and by sponsors, such as local Rotary Clubs, who implement the program in their local schools. For more information on the program contact Dictionary Project at dictionaryproject.org.