|
www.fellowshiphistory.org
US Dictionary Project
Colorado Springs
InterQuest adds 960 students to their local dictionary project!
 In
this year of economic downturn the 28 member COS
InterQuest club voted to support 960 additional 3rd
grade students near their service area.
“We felt that with Make
Dreams Real as our years theme we needed to do more”
said member Darlene Cramm who spear headed the clubs local
project. This meant
the club needed to fund almost 4000 dictionaries or $37,000
project cost this year.
The new area included students located in three school
districts in Northeastern rural El Paso County
with very low reading scores.
The club has supported over 2500 students a year for the
past 7 years in 4 school districts plus several charter and
private schools.
This year
they also formed a partnership with the Monument Sertoma
club to take on support of students in the Monument area.
The Sertoma club was asked to help with a $1500
sponsorship and ended up taking on the whole project for this
districts 402 students.
Sertomans were so
impressed they have already agreed to continue next year.
InterQuest membership and their sponsors ended up
distributing hardcover dictionaries to 3672 students in
December.
InterQuest club supports their project with 78 book sponsorship
opportunities to local businesses for $750.00 plus provides
$10,000 in club funds. For more information contact Darlene at
dcramm1@msn.com
USAdictionary project.org is owned and managed by the InterQuest
Rotary Club.
USA
Dictionary Project sets all time record with a 24% increase.
National
Chair Scott Allen and PE of COS InterQuest reports that
34,446 3rd graders nationwide were
provided with their very own hardcover dictionary in
December 2008.
Thank you for your support!
This
represents 70 TONS of books worth $700,000 of Scholastic
dictionaries being given to local 3rd
graders in over 120 clubs in 13 states this year.
Many of these clubs reported major media coverage in
their service area.
RC of
Greater Rochester (NY,
1400 books) reported the
Rochester Post Bulletin
provided a full page spread and included the following statement
–
…Let's hope those volumes are put to good use. Yes, it might be
faster and easier to simply type a word into a computer, but a
teachable moment occurs when a student asks "How do I
look up a word if I don't know how to spell it?" Trial-and-error
and process-of-elimination are skills every child should
acquire, and practicing with a dictionary is a great way to
learn them.
Furthermore - we must admit some journalistic bias here - we
think that
"accidental" exposure to new words can be fun for
children and adults of any age. Using an online dictionary might
be more efficient, but flipping pages is an interesting way to
expand one's vocabulary. The smiles on the kids' faces was proof
of that.
And finally - we admit a LOT
of journalistic bias here -
we
rather appreciate the authority a real, physical dictionary
conveys. In a world where expedience has reduced concerns
about grammar, punctuation and spelling to mere afterthoughts, a
dictionary attempts to hold the line against linguistic
indifference.
Perhaps it's a losing battle, but the longer it takes for
today's third-graders to figure that out, the better off they'll
be...
RC of
Wichita (KS) and the RC of CS InterQuest (CO) continue as the
largest single clubs to purchase for their service areas.
Scott says the continued success of this project has far
exceeded any dreams, expectations or goals this project had from
its start in 2001 with 1800 books.
The continued sharing with others by word of mouth allows
this project to grow over 20% each year.
Scott reports the goal for next year will approach 50,000
books and wants us all to remember the deadline in 2009 is once
again October 1, 2009.
Projects details are maintained on their website at
www.usadictionaryproject.org.
Project is now the largest single purchaser of
hardcover dictionaries in the whole world.
This non-profit dictionary project is owned and managed
by the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs InterQuest.
For information please contact
usadictionary@comcast.net
BACK TO USA DICTIONARY PROJECT
BACK TO FELLOWSHIP LIST
|
