Dictionary Day

On May 6, 2025, the Las Cruces Rio Grande Rotary Club distributed paperback School Dictionaries to 3rd graders in all 24 elementary schools in the Las Cruces Public School District.  Upon receiving the books from the publisher, the club then attaches a sticker containing the Rotary 4-Way Test to the inside front cover of each of the thousands of books designated for each school. Rotarians in the club volunteer to take boxes of books to each school and hand deliver them to each student. We then take some time to review the 4-Way Test and look up some of the words, such as "goodwill" and "beneficial". We talk with the students about the importance of following the 4-Way Test in everything we think, do, and say. The book includes appendices containing chapters more akin to an encyclopedia containing information such as The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Fifty United States, Maps of the World, the periodic table of elements, sign language, and more. We also spend a few minutes pointing out some of these extra features of their new book reminding the students that this is their personal book to keep. This is the 19th consecutive year that the club has distributed dictionaries to all 3rd graders. Remarkably, some of our Student Rotarians who come to our club meetings as junior in high school still have their dictionaries and remember receiving them from our club.