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Austintown Rotary donates dictionary to Watson
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Neighbors | Submitted.After a busy day of doling out dictionaries at Watson Elementary, Austintown Rotary members Michael Cafaro, left, Heather Posey, and Gary Reel paused for a picture.
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Neighbors | Submitted.Gary Reel, a former Austintown teacher and current Austintown Rotary officer, spoke to Watson Elementary’s third-grade classes about the dictionaries the Rotary donated.
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Neighbors | Submitted.After receiving her dictionary, third-grader Alana Ruiz made sure to flip to the front and claim the dictionary as hers with her name.
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Neighbors | Submitted.Gary Reel (left) and his Rotary colleagues received plenty of thanks from third-grade teachers like Kara Lemke.
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Neighbors | Submitted.The back page of the donated dictionaries featured the longest word in the English language. Allison Edwards took a look at the word and couldn’t hide his amazement.
BY SARAH FOOR
When the Austintown Rotary decided the third-grade students of Watson Elementary needed a gift, they donated something that keeps on giving — a dictionary.
“Third grade is the perfect age for this gift of dictionaries — in this grade, they’re starting to learn words beyond the bare minimum, and they’re old enough to appreciate the gift of words,” said Rotary representative Gary Reel of the Oct. 25 presentation.
A retired Austintown teacher himself, the dictionary donation is a project close to Reel’s heart.
“We’ve been donating 600 dictionaries a year for 10 years and I still have old students that approach me and tell me, ‘I still have my dictionary on my bookcase.’”
Along with Rotary members Michael Cafaro and Heather Posey, the representatives entered Watson’s third-grade rooms and presented their donations to students. The dictionary is meant to have everything a third-grader needs, and fun details, too.
The dictionaries are small and light, and feature informative sections on sign language, state capitals, and have the 1,909-letter longest word in the English language.
After seeing the longest word in the dictionary, the students needed just one in response — “Wow!”