There is power in words. They are how we communicate. The Wallkill East
Rotary knows the impact of words and that is why each year the club participates in the dictionary project where they buy and distribute dictionaries to third graders throughout the Pine Bush Central School District.
“One of our service areas is ‘youth’,” said Dr. William Bassett, a member of the Rotary and a former superintendent of Pine Bush schools. “Youth and education. We talk about youth with a focus on education and literacy.”
Bassett said the Wallkill East Rotary has been distributing dictionaries since
the spring of 2008. That same year, they began distributing them in October so the students could have them throughout the school year. They’ve distributed more than 4,000 dictionaries to 11 third grade classes so far.
This project is a special one to Bassett.
“First of all I am a Rotarian. I look for projects that are aligned with Rotary’s goals,” he said. “One of the priorities of Rotary (worldwide) is literacy and reading. In my opinion, the dictionary fits right in to this priority.”
Bassett and his fellow Rotarians went to each elementary school in the district earlier this month – Edward J. Russell, Pine Bush, Circleville and Pakanasink – and talked to the children about the value of having a dictionary. He encouraged them to use it often.
Superintendent of Schools Tim Mains was with them. He wrote a special poem to mark the occasion called “Ode to the Dictionary.” It made the children laugh and think about the power of words.
“We’ve never had a poem before,” said Bassett to the children.
The children were thrilled to get their very own dictionary. Bassett encouraged them to use it and even gave them an assignment – to look up the word ‘service.’
“That’s what the Rotary is all about – service,” said Bassett.
This year, Rotarian Sal Lucido suggested something new. In addition to distributing the dictionaries, a local police officer accompanied the Rotarians.
Police Chief Dominick Blasko of the Town of Crawford Police Department met the kids from Pine Bush Elementary and EJR, while Officer Clark from the Wallkill Police Department got a chance to interact with the kids from Pakanasink and Circleville. Clark told the kids he has several dictionaries, including one in his patrol car and one at the police station.
Each class thanked the Rotary for thinking of them. And they promised that when Rotary returns next year to distribute dictionaries to the new third graders, they will still be using theirs in fourth grade.