With one eye to furthering education and the other to the importance of the printed word, St. Johns Kiwanis members have been keeping a busy schedule of delivering dictionaries to six elementary schools in the St. Johns area. The effort stems from a Kiwanis International program which began in 2002 and has resulted in over eight million dictionaries ending up in the hands of elementary students throughout the United States.
Rhoda Hacker, chair of the local Kiwanis plan, explained that this year a total of 225 dictionaries have been delivered to six elementary schools. Those buildings include Oakview, Gateway, Riley, Eureka, East Olive and St. Peters Lutheran. “It’s exciting to see the children react to their own, personal, dictionary,” she said. “This is another Kiwanis project that is also rewarding to our members.”
Part of the delivery process involves the placement of an adhesive name tag on the opening pages of each dictionary to enable the student to make personal identification, enhancing a sense of ownership. Workers at Community Resource Volunteers, under the direction of Bill Richards – a Kiwanis member – secured the name tag in each dictionary.
Along with Ms Hacker, other Kiwanians assisting in delivery were Chris Bouck, Tony Hufnagel, Dave Hunt, Roberta O’Connor, Marilyn Thelen, Theresa Fedewa Wells and Carol Wooley.