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Earlier this spring, the Rotary Club of Las Cruces continued its long tradition, as dictionaries were delivered to 1,628 third-grade students in 25 elementary schools in Las Cruces, Mesilla and Doña Ana and on White Sands Missile Range. Every third grader in Las Cruces Public Schools received “A Student’s Dictionary and Gazetteer,” 27th edition, published by The Dictionary Project, Inc., a nonprofit based in South Carolina.
The dictionary contains The Declaration of Independence, The United States Constitution, maps of the world and other items of educational interest for students at the third-grade level.
The dictionaries also contain a sticker with the Rotary Four-Way Test, which is the club’s guiding principle for any action: “Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?”
The dictionaries were delivered to each school by LCPS Warehouse Department staff rather than Rotary Club members because of COVID-19. Principals and teachers then handed out the dictionaries in third-grade classrooms.
"By providing dictionaries to LCPS third-grade students, Rotarians are demonstrating another example of how they live up to the Rotary Four-Way Test of the things we think, say and do," said long-time Las Cruces Rotary Club member Gene Gant, a former member of the LCPS Board of Education and the New Mexico Public Education Commission.
The gift of a dictionary to each third grader is important because “many families in Doña Ana County cannot afford to purchase books for their children,” the Rotary Club said. The dictionary may be the first book that many students own. They can use it at school and take it home for reference and to help with homework assignments, the club said. It can also be used by other family members.
Dictionaries also help improve student literacy, especially in the lower grades.
The dictionary donations may also save classroom teachers from dipping into their own pockets to purchase educational materials, Rotarians said.
