Two students at the Farwell School show off their new dictionaries. From left, in front, are Keyshawn Green and Stephanie Cyr; back, Lewiston Elks Youth Activities Chairman Howard Fogle and Farwell School Principal Linda St. Andre.

Elks give dictionaries to kids

LEWISTON – Third-graders at the Sherwood Heights School in Auburn and the Farwell School in Lewiston received an early Christmas present on Dec. 19 – a dictionary for each of them to take home.

The dictionaries were a gift from the Lewiston Elks Lodge 371 as part of a nationwide campaign to assist students in becoming good writers, active readers and creative thinkers.

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks nationwide adopted the project in 2004 as one of its many youth-oriented programs and encouraged each of its subordinate lodges to participate by purchasing the dictionaries and delivering them to third-graders at local schools.

Lewiston Elks Youth Activities Chairman Howard Fogle heard about the project and contacted “The Dictionary Project” to obtain the dictionaries. The project is a nonprofit organization based in Charleston, S.C., that has distributed more than 7 million books nationwide since its inception in 1992.

This is the second year that the Lewiston Elks Lodge has donated the dictionaries to area schools, and it is anticipated that the program will continue each year to perhaps include other schools in the area. To learn more about the Elks, visit elks.org or maineelks.org.

For more information about the dictionary project, visit www.dictionaryproject.com.