Huntington Beach Elks Lodge donates dictionaries to school children

 The Huntington Beach Elks Lodge # 1959 donated 1,680 dictionaries to the third-grade students of Huntington Beach, CA and Fountain Valley, CA. The last of the donated dictionaries were delivered to the third-grade students of Roch Courreges Elementary School in Fountain Valley, CA. The third-grade students enthusiastically received the dictionaries, a major effort of the Elks nationwide. They looked at the maps of the fifty states included as supplemental information in the dictionary. They checked out the listing of the planets, the presidential biographies, tried out the sign language and were amazed at the page devoted to the world’s longest word. As an added bonus, Ron Courreges, a Lodge member and great-grandson of Roch Courreges, who owned the land that was ultimately donated to the city of Fountain Valley, spoke about his family’s history and what life was like for them. Then he let the 3rd graders ask questions. The students were fascinated by Ron Courreges’ description of what life was like for his great-grandfather and how the community had changed. Courreges School is named after his family, which has resided in the area for 135 years.