Pompton Lakes Students Get Dictionaries From Rotary

From Belize to Boston, from Portugal to Pompton Lakes, Rotarians throughout the world visited third-grade classrooms in March – Rotary International-designated Literacy Month – to present all of the students with their very own paperback dictionaries. Local [Pompton Lakes] Rotarians including Club President Garry Luciani, Phil Sohn, Peter Lefkowitz, and Ken Snowe visited third graders at Lincoln and Lenox Elementary schools, St. Mary’s, and Windsor schools over the past two weeks, explaining why they believe it is so important that students own a dictionary and presenting their gifts. Luciani, dedicated in his adult life to education, said, “In the developing world, one in five adults – almost 862 million people – cannot read or write.[“] “In 1985 Rotary declared basic literacy to be a pre-condition to the development of peace. As a result of this emphasis, more than half the world’s 33,000 Rotary clubs now address the full range of literacy and mathematical challenges for primary, vocational, and adult learners as well as teacher training.” Sohn, chairing the local Dictionary Project, said, “Participating in this initiative, our club has embraced literacy through the dictionary program. Every year, we bring dictionaries to the children in person and make a short presentation that shows the students how to use the dictionaries. This brief visit also lets the children know that there are people in their community who are interested in their education and want to see them succeed.”