Health & Fitness
The Dictionary Project - - Sponsored by Rotary Club of Chicago
Lincoln Park Resident Donates First Dictionaries to Thrilled CPS students!
Rotary’s Dictionary Project yearly delivers between 750 and 1,000 dictionaries to Chicago Public School students, which for many students marks their first time ever owning a dictionary or even a book of their very own! Even in this electronic age, dictionaries are important, and Rotary’s interest in the education of our children is met with smiles and gratitude by excited students from LaSalle 2 Magnet Elementary.
Mary Bell of Lincoln Park along with Wes Westerfield – both long time members of the Rotary Club of Chicago – comments on her commitment to Rotary and the Dictionary Project “The object of the Rotary Dictionary Project is to provide third grade students a personal dictionary of their very own that will serve them at least through elementary and middle school. Many educators and researchers see this as a key to better reading, speech, and writing. These skills will improve student performance in other subjects as well. Receiving the dictionaries from Rotary members is beneficial to students as well. The young people meet successful adults in their community who care enough about them to not only purchase dictionaries and come to their school to present them personally.”
The Rotary Club, founded as a friendship club in Chicago in 1905, is the world’s first service organization. The four originators soon realized that they wished to be more than just a friendship organization-- they wished to make a difference. So they began to pool their talents together, and focused on solving local community problems. In a few years, Rotary had expanded into the East and West coasts, and into Canada. Today, there are over 34,000 clubs around the world, with 1.2 million members.
