Brewster Children Benefit from Donated Dictionaries

Elks Exalted Ruler Dominick Talarico presents dictionaries to students at the C.V. Starr School in Brewster last week including Julia LaPenna, Michael Charbonneau, Erin Kirkpatrick, and Brendan Brooks. School children in the greater Brewster area are benefiting from dictionaries presented to them by two Southeastbased organizations.

Boys and girls attending class at the Garden Street and John F. Kennedy Elementary Schools in Brewster, the Pequenakonck Elementary School in North Salem, the Melrose School in Southeast, and Green Chimneys School received dictionaries earlier this month courtesy of the Brewster Rotary.

Four hundred eighty dictionaries were donated to the third graders, and at a recent Rotary Club meeting, educators from the various districts were invited to lunch, where they thanked the Rotarians for their continued support.

Mike Cavalieri has been heading up the Rotary dictionary project for the past 8 years. He called the donation of dictionaries a “marvelous opportunity for boys and girls to be able to concentrate on reading. Dictionaries provide a wealth of information while encouraging children to start reading books instead of just looking at the computer screen. These are our leaders of the future. Why not start in the third grade?”

Garden Street School teacher Lynn Olsen told the hosts: “The kids really love the dictionaries. They not only enjoy looking words up but in their free time actually read some of the sections of the dictionary including tables and the longest word in the dictionary.”

JFK teacher Allison Mooney agreed that the children truly enjoy the gift: “When they first are presented with their dictionary, there is a buzz across the room. The children share their finds. The generosity of the Rotary is truly appreciated.”

Bill Ford, Brewster Rotary President, said Rotary International has a proud history of “attempting to eradicate different things, including polio. We are also promoting literacy worldwide. The dictionaries do that. Our dictionary project is one of Brewster Rotary’s most successful programs.”

Last week, members of the Brewster Elks presented 500 dictionaries to 4th and 5th graders at the C.V. Starr Intermediate School.

Elks Exalted Ruler Dominick Talarico visited the school and handed each child a new dictionary. He commended the school for its efforts in educating “our future. This is our way of doing something special to assist America’s upcoming leaders.”

C.V. Starr School Principal Frank Zamperlin and Assistant Principal Nancy Ferrarone both thanked the Elks for their generous donation.

The children appreciated the gifts. Michael Charbonneau called the dictionary “really neat. It contains so many words. I guess I’ll do good in spelling now!”