Hayfield Grange #800 Teams Up with Fellow Organizations to Provide Dictionaries

Hayfield Grange, along with the following organizations – Cambridge Spring Kiwanis Club, Covenant Lodge #473, John Hotchkiss’ Barber Shop, Saegertown Women’s Improvement Club, Spa Dental Center, Dr. Marie Crocker, State Farm Insurance Company Agent Gene Schlosser, Townville Lions Club and the Townville Pierian Club – have donated funds to purchase dictionaries for each third grade students in the Penncrest School District. Volunteers from Lodge #473, Hotchkiss’ Barber Shop, Women’s Improvement Club, Townville Lions and Hayfield Grange placed labels in the 214 dictionaries and will be delivering the dictionaries to each of the schools, making a presentation to each third grade classes. This is the 11th year of the project and during that time 22,994 dictionaries have been presented by Hayfield Grange and other sponsoring organizations. Many of the above organizations have also been sponsors for the 11 years of the program. Organizers said the program is an opportunity for children to expand their vocabulary and for many to actually own a dictionary. A strong vocabulary is an essential tool for gaining knowledge, they said, and the limits of an individual’s language are the limits of his world. This project began in Charleston, S.C., in 1995, and was founded by Many French. In 1999, French, along with a board of directors and a network of volunteers, raised enough money to put dictionaries in the hands of every public school third-grader in the state of South Carolina. More than 18 million children have received a dictionary since implementation of the program in 1995 from volunteers who have participated in The Dictionary Project to provide a dictionary for the third grade students in their community each year, so that children can enjoy the benefits of a large vocabulary. Hayfield Grange has been involved in many community service projects over the years and looks at new projects each year within the community. Some of the projects in the past have been providing hats, gloves, and mittens to the Saegertown Preschool at Christmas in conjunction with the Saegertown Women’s Improvement Club; providing non-perishable food products for the Saegertown United Methodist Church’s Food Pantry; packing TLC boxes at Christmas in conjunction with Hickernell United Methodist Church for children who many not have a Christmas; distributing used greeting cards to area nursing homes for craft projects as well as new Christmas cards for use by residents; providing funds to Hospice, Women’s Services of Crawford County, St. James Haven and John Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation; providing Hospice Dolls for children requiring surgery; financial support to the Dairy Complex at the Crawford County Fairgrounds; sponsoring the 55 Alive Safe Driving Course; providing food items for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Community dinners at the Family and Community Christian Association; and financial support for the NW PA Autism Outreach Center. The Dictionary Project would like to thank the Hayfield Grange and all the contributing organizations who are active in their community and value educating the next generation.