By Brad Pedersen

Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2012, 8:51 p.m.
Updated: Thursday, November 29, 2012

The Rotary Club of Norwin wants to make sure every third-grade student has access to a dictionary.

Each year, the club hands out copies of Webster's Dictionary for Students to third graders in the Norwin School District.

The club distributed 440 dictionaries across Norwin's four elementary schools, Rotarian Gary Teti said.

This year marks the eighth time the club gave dictionaries to the students.

Since the project began, Teti estimated the club has given out about 4,000 dictionaries.

The Rotary Club works with the Dictionary Project, a Charleston, S.C.,-based nonprofit organization, which provides the dictionaries for about $2 each.

Each dictionary comes with the Rotary's logo on the inside cover, which club members hope will inspire children to get active in their community by volunteering, Teti said.

“We want to give back to the community, but we also want people to start thinking about volunteering,” he said. “We hope seeing that logo reminds them of the need for volunteers and how someone who was giving their time came in to talk about volunteerism and gave them this dictionary.”

Hahntown Elementary School Principal Lisa Willig said that with each child having a dictionary to keep, students are more likely to go home and explore those reference books.

“A lot of times, we use spellcheck on our computers or have different modes,” she said. “But it's important for students to have the dictionary, to use their A-B-C practice skills in the classroom and at home.”

Brad Pedersen is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-856-7400, ext. 8626, or bpedersen@tribweb.com.

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