Years and miles apart, brothers receive Rotary dictionaries

 Emerson, a 3rd grader at Slippery Rock Area Elementary School, was excited and happy to receive a dictionary in September, courtesy of the Rotary Club of Slippery Rock. When he got home that day he told his mother, `I got a dictionary just like Marshall did.` Marshall was a 3rd grader in the public schools of Spanish Fork, Utah, when the Rotary Club there distributed dictionaries in his class. Marshall found his dictionary useful in his homework assignments, and, when the family moved to Slippery Rock a few years later, he made sure his dictionary made the trip, too. Emerson was familiar with his brother`s use of the dictionary, and wanted one of his own. This September, his wish was granted. The brothers told their story at the meeting of the Rotary Club of Slippery Rock on Dec. 29, 2008.

The dictionaries are supplied at a nominal cost by The Dictionary Project, an organization based in South Carolina that seeks to make dictionaries available to all school students. They then seek Rotary and other service clubs, organizations and individuals to sponsor the cost and arrange for the donations in the various schools. The Rotary Club of Slippery Rock, in cooperation with the Rotary Club of Portersville-Prospect, initiated the project this school year in the Slippery Rock Area School District. Slippery Rock Rotary donated books to the 3rd graders in Har-Mer Elementary and Slippery Rock Elementary Schools. Portersville-Prospect Rotary sponsored the books for 3rd graders at Moraine Elementary and the Portersville Christian Academy. The two clubs plan to make this an annual project, with the cooperation of the schools.