Vienna Rotary Club Donates Thousands of Dictionaries to Local Third-Graders

From Rotary Club of Vienna:

Thursday, Sept. 22, at Marshall Road Elementary School, the Rotary Club of Vienna (VA) began their Dictionary Project, which will donate over 1,400 dictionaries to third-grade students in all 12 Vienna Public Schools. Every third-grader will receive a dictionary that they may keep and use as their own personal reference book throughout their educational years.

Co-chair of the Dictionary Project, Shirley Buford explains, “We are delighted to be partnering with the schools again this year to educate the kids about dictionaries and about Rotary.”

Funds for this project were raised during Viva! Vienna! The Rotary Club of Vienna is mostly known for its gargantuan effort to orchestrate Viva! Vienna!, the annual Memorial Day weekend festival held in the historic district of the Town of Vienna.

The Dictionary Project began in 1992 in Savannah, Ga., when Annie Plummer gave 50 dictionaries to a school near her home. The program grew, and Ms. Plummer raised enough funds to donate over 17,000 dictionaries in her life time. As the project expanded, the Dictionary Project became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Association in 1995. Rotary is also a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization.

Rotarians from all 50 states, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and more than 15 other countries worldwide participate in this project. Since 1995 over 18 million children have received dictionaries. The Vienna Rotary Club’s members and volunteers will be visiting Elementary Schools in the area for the next two to three weeks.

To learn more about this and other Rotary Club of Vienna projects, visitors are welcome to join the members for lunch through RSVP for any meeting held on Wednesdays, noon to 1:30 p.m. RSVP to Membership Chair James Cudney at James@Cudney.org

Photos courtesy of Rotary Club of Vienna