Once again the Culver City Rotary Club donated dictionaries to third-grade students in all five of the Culver City Unified School District’s elementary schools.
“The dictionary program started many years ago; we are always trying to do community service of some kind and children are the top priority,” Culver City Rotary Club President Joel Forman said. “It really grew and it became the most popular program that we do for the school district for the city.”
Through the Dictionary Project third-grade students in Culver City receive their own personal dictionary. The goal of the program is to assist students in completing the school year as good writers, active readers and creative thinkers. In order to have the program garner attention, the Rotary Club board approved creating signage about the project to place at the schools around the city.
“The students are always excited when they get their dictionaries; they are excited to have something of their own and to be able to use it in the classroom,” Linwood E. Howe Elementary School Principal Kim Indelicato said. “I think that one of the advantages of the kids actually opening a dictionary is that the kids will come across other words as well, and learn more about spelling since they have to spell the word pretty close to correct in order to find it in the dictionary.
Through a company called Dictionary Project, located in South Carolina, the Rotary Club is able to provide dictionaries. The company contacts Rotary Club in the middle of the summer to ensure they are still interested in continuing with the program. Once Rotary Club confirms its participation, the logistics behind providing the dictionaries by September or October get underway.
“We go to each school, one at a time, but we never do more than two schools in one day,” Forman said. “People have been wonderful about it and most of the club members participate.”
“It definitely takes a village and our parents work hard to raise money for a variety of programs and it is great that we also have the community, and specifically Rotary, raising money to help support what is happening in the schools as well,” Indelicato said. “I have been in Culver City Unified for fifteen years and Rotary has always helped in several capacities.”