ARLINGTON Third-grade students in the Arlington and Lakewood school districts once again benefited from the generosity of the Arlington Kiwanis Club and the Friends of the Arlington Library.
Virginia Hatch, a member of both the Kiwanis and the Friends of the Library, estimated that more than 800 free dictionaries were dispensed to third-graders throughout the two school districts.
We gave up the Darrington School District this year, but only because their Kiwanis took over doing this for themselves, said Hatch of the program, which had previously dispensed free dictionaries to Darrington third-graders as well. Weve been doing this for at least half a dozen years, and the letters of thanks we get are so wonderful.
Hatch explained that this local program is part of a national effort to distribute free dictionaries to third-grade students, citing third-grade as an age at which many students can start to make effective use of dictionaries.
Jerry Davis, an Arlington Kiwanis member, took part in the distribution for the first time this year, and he couldnt hide his enthusiasm.
The highlight of each stop was seeing the expressions and hearing the excitement from the kids when they found out the dictionaries were for all the third-graders and they got to keep them, Davis said. Also many of the teachers were just as thrilled because there are not always enough dictionaries in a classroom for the activities they plan.