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Loading this year’s dictionaries are, from left to right, John Cody of Hood River Stationers, Rotary President Maui Myer, and Hood River Stationers owner Jesse Paige.
Loading this year’s dictionaries are, from left to right, John Cody of Hood River Stationers, Rotary President Maui Myer, and Hood River Stationers owner Jesse Paige.
HOOD RIVER — For 25 consecutive years, the Hood River Rotary Club delivered a dictionary to every fifth-grade student in the county. The program was suspended during the pandemic, but is up and rolling again.
Rotarians meet with students, talk about Rotary’s service projects, give each student a dictionary, and then play dictionary games with the students.
Since Rotary International has been a leader in working to eradicate polio, students are often asked to look up poliomyelitis. Combining that tongue twister of a word with the now old-world concept of looking something up in a book can challenge the students. Many kids get a quizzical look on their face.
The importance of that international service project was truly brought home this year when a teacher shared with her students that her grandmother was struck by polio at the age of 13 and spent some time in an iron lung.
“That really piqued the students’ interest. Things started shifting from words to science. It was both interesting and moving,” said the program’s chair, Rotarian Paul Crowley.
Over the years, the Rotary club has delivered about 7,500 books to students. For the last 25 years, Hood River Stationers has helped by providing the books at a substantial discount.
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