Hayfield Grange coordinates dictionary project
Hayfield Grange, along with the following organizations–Cambridge Springs Kiwanis Club, Covenant Lodge # 473, John Hotchkiss`s Barber Shop, Ladies Auxiliary of Saegertown Vol. Fire Department, Saegertown Social & Service Club, Saegertown Women`s Improvement Club, Spa Dental Center – Dr. Marie Crocker, State Farm Insurance Company – Gene Schlosser, Agent, Townville Lions Club and the Townville Pierian Club–have donated funds to purchase dictionaries for each third grade student in the Penncrest School District and French Creek Valley Christian School. Volunteers placed labels and letters for parents in the 267 dictionaries and will be delivering the dictionaries to each of the schools, making a presentation to each of the third grade classes. This is the seventh year of the project and during that time 2,136 dictionaries have been presented by Hayfield Grange and other sponsoring organizations. Many of the above organizations have also been sponsors for the seven years of the program.
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 the Hickernell United Methodist Church, for children who may 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, funds to Hospice, Women`s Services of Crawford County, and St. James Haven, providing Hospital Dolls for children requiring surgery, co-sponsoring the `Sowing the Wind` live farm safety program by the Fulton Theater, financial support of the new 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 YWCA, and financial support for the NW PA Autism Outreach Center. A new project during 2008-2009 was a pie sale with the proceeds donated to the John Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation.
Hayfield Grange received third place in the annual Pennsylvania State Grange Community Service contest at the annual Pennsylvania State Grange convention held in Johnstown.
The Grange received many thank-you letters from students and parents. Here are some samples:
`Dear Hayfield Grange,
Thank you for the cool dictionary. I like looking at the dictionary. I play games with my friends. The game is somebody says a word and the first person to find the word wins. I will take care of it.
From, Tanner`
`Dear Hayfield Grage,
Thank you for the Dictionary. It will really help me and I am very grateful to have the dictionary with out it I probably would not be able to do as much as I can do now in writing. Thank you for thinking about not only me but everybody else too.
Sincerely, Dominic`
`Dear Hayfield Grange,
Thank you for the dictionaries. They helped a whole lot. I learned what abyss is. It is a bottomless trench. I wish I could see you in person. That would be cool. I even saw the longest word in English language. I am not even going to try to say or spell it. All I know is that it starts with an m and ends with an e. It is on page 524 (aka last page). If I tried to spell that word then no way. I also saw a Braill page. I do not know what that is. I found a sign language page. I can spell spell in sign language. I love the pages with the presidents. Thank you.
Love, Madie`
`Dear Hayfield Grange,
Thank you for the dictionaries. It really helps me to spell. It is really hard to read the longest word in the world!
Sincerely, Jennifer`
