Dictionary project

St. Francis Catholic School, Lake Region Christian School and Pillager third graders became recipients of a student dictionary as members of the Brainerd Elks Lodge No. 615 launched their fourth annual Dictionary Project distribution. In all, 548 dictionaries will be distributed including students of the Brainerd School District.

The dictionary project was founded in 1995 by Mary French of Charleston, SC. Elks joined this movement in 2004 and nationwide have donated more than 1.5 million dictionaries to third-grade students and their teachers as sponsors of The  Dictionary Project over the last seven years. The Brainerd Elks have distributed over 2,000 dictionaries.

Mrs. Craig, St. Francis Catholic School third-grade teacher, said her students had just been introduced to a dictionary and started to use them. She was pleased that everyone now has their own edition. Peter Johnson, Elks member, talked about some of the special highlights in this version including the longest word (over 1,900 characters), the Constitution, presidents, calendars and much more information. One student interested in sign language was excited that the sign alphabet was included.