Local Elks Pass out Dictionaries

The Saddleback Valley Elks, headquartered in Mission Viejo, have given away almost 4,500 dictionaries over the last three months to third-graders at  in San Juan Capistrano.

Lodge publicist Hal Mattson sent us a few quotes from the people that helped make this project possible:

Here's what Elks Dictionary Project Chairman and Past Exalted Ruler Pat Martino said of the program:

"Each year, generous contributions from Elks Lodge Members and our Big Bucks Charity Bingo provide the funds for the purchase of the expensive dictionaries. We enjoy personally delivering the dictionaries because they are so well received by the kids and so appreciated by the teachers. We even hear accounts of students who have taken the books they received from us six years ago and used them all the way through high school. That tells us that the objective to increase the understanding and use of words is working."

Elks Lodge publicity chairman Andy Costello, who has assisted in the distributions for the past 6 years, said:

“It’s interesting how the kids of today still relish taking possession of a book, especially in this day of electronic communication and Internet education. In presenting the dictionaries to the students, we simply describe the great source of knowledge they now have at their fingertips and what that knowledge can do for them, today and in the future. We even talk about preparing for high school and encourage them to think about working hard in order to earn scholarships. We realize that, like most kids, they like their computers at home and in school, but the dictionary seems to be something special to them. I think that they feel a sense of pride when they can write their name in the book and call it their very own.”