Port Jervis Rotary gives students the gift of knowledge

Roy Hinshalwood, founder of the Rotary dictionary program, looks on as ASK third graders show off their new dictionaries.

POSTED: NOV. 9, 2009

For the eighth consecutive year, the Port Jervis Rotary Club has given all third graders in the Port Jervis City School District their very own copy of the “Webster” dictionary.

A group of Port Jervis Rotarians visited Anna S. Kuhl and Hamilton Bicentennial Elementary Schools recently to personally present the dictionaries to each of the students. “The dictionaries are our gift to you. We hope you will use your new dictionary as a tool to help you become a strong communicator,” said Rotary member and former Rotary president Rev. Steve Huston.

 

ASK students proudly display their new dictionaries. Principal John Solimando helped to thank the Rotarians for the generous donation (left to right) Tom Smith, Sophie Hinshalwood, Patty Niosi, Debbie Valentine, Matt Witherow, Steve Huston, Roy Hinshalwood, and Elaine Cardella-Tedesco.	Rotarians (left to right) Elaine Cardella-Tedesco, Tom Smith, Patty Niosi, President Debbie Valentine, Roy Hishalwood, and Matt Witherow  are pictured with some of the HBE 3rd graders who received dictionaries.

HBE third graders are already making good use of their new dictionaries.

Millions of dictionaries have been purchased and distributed by Rotary clubs across the country since the program started more than a decade ago in South Carolina. The Dictionary Project was brought to Port Jervis eight years ago by Roy Hinshalwood shortly after he and his wife, Sophia, relocated to the Hudson Valley. The success of the Port Jervis program has prompted Rotary clubs across the state of New York to participate in the youth-orientated project.

This year, the Port Jervis Rotary presented more than 200 dictionaries to local third graders.