Our club has been delighted to become involved with this simple and effective project.  We were so taken with the idea that we began participation even before we officially chartered our club!

The Dictionary Project is the name of an organization formed in South Carolina.  Their goal was to encourage literacy at the third grade level, and they created these dictionaries designed specifically for third graders.  The intuitive appeal of this project was enhanced by a study that was done showing that the strongest predictor of adult incarceration is third grade literacy.

Community service groups across the United States have purchased these dictionaries and distributed them to third graders each year.  We have joined in this national project along with other service organizations in our area.  The Elks club had already given away 3000 dictionaries in the metro area.  When some of our members checked the list from the Elks we discovered there were still over 1000 third graders in the Cedar Rapids Metro area that hadn’t receive dictionaries this year.

Viola Gibson 3rd graders receiving their dictionaries.

The Dictionary Project Group provided Iowa Kiwanis 5000 dictionaries at no charge to place across the state.  This was a one time offer based upon their group’s goal to completely cover the state of Iowa.

We applied for the free dictionaries and have given or are in the process of giving these dictionaries to all third graders at the following area schools:

Hiawatha Elementary
Nixon Elementary
Viola Gibson Elementary
St Pius Elementary
All Saints Elementary
St Joes Elementary
Arthur Elementary
Isaac Newton Elementary
Starry Elementary
Wright Elementary
Garfield Elementary
Madison Elementary
Trinity Elementary
Harrison Elementary
Coolidge Elementary
Erskine Elementary
Emerson Elementary
Penn Elementary in North Liberty