Ossining Students Grateful for Reference Books from Rotarians

As they received a new dictionary or thesaurus from the Rotary Club of Ossining, children in third and fifth grades carefully wrote their names on the bookplates and started thumbing through the reference books.

“That’s a lot of pages,” third-grader Joseph Vera said as he flipped through his Webster’s Dictionary for Students. “I’ve never had one before.”

A group of Rotary Club members handed out the books in person on Sept. 26. This is the 26th year they have given out dictionaries to all third-graders in public and parochial schools, and thesauruses to all fifth-graders. Rotarians estimate they have given out about 1,400 annually, for a total of more than 30,000 over the years.

The bookplates that Rotary Club members placed in each book also listed Anthony P. Beldotti Management Corp. and Dorsey Funeral Home Inc. as funders.

“We have a literacy program in Rotary, and that is why we came up with this program,” said George Weeks, club president and a member for 52 years.

The children are so enthusiastic about receiving the books, said George Camp, secretary of the service organization and past district governor. Some have told him they were using their older siblings’ dictionaries and thesauruses.

Superintendent Raymond Sanchez told a class of Claremont third-graders that the whole community cares about their education. “The Rotarians are here because they want to make sure that you have the tools and the resources to do well,” he said.

The Rotary Club has other programs that support local students, such as five annual scholarships each year for graduating Ossining High School seniors. The Interact Club at OHS, which sponsors local and international service projects, is part of the Ossining Rotary Club. Each year, the Rotary Club honors a school district staff member as employee of the year.

Rotarian Karen LaRocca-Fels, director of the Ossining Public Library, said the club and library are happy to help the children in their education. “We want to make sure that you do really, really well in school,” she said.

Rotarian Marcia MacNeill told a fifth-grade class that club members hope that the children use the reference books and remember the organization. “Hopefully, when you are all superstars, you remember that the Rotary gave this to you,” she said. “Maybe you can come and join our club and do the same for other fifth-graders.”

Third-grader Dustin Anzalone gave a thumbs-up when asked what she thought of her new dictionary. “I’ll probably take it home every single day so I can learn more words,” she said.

Fifth-grader Megan Gilbert said she thinks the thesaurus will be very helpful with her vocabulary and writing, especially since students are learning bigger and more advanced words each year.

Malaki Drysdale, also in fifth grade, said thesauruses can be handy if you’ve used a word several times and want to find an alternative, such as “exclaimed” for “said.”

“I’ll probably use it a lot. I like to learn new words and stuff,” he said.