Marc Kelly, Rotary Club of Vandalia, Vandalia, IL

This is the Vandalia Rotary Club’s 5th year participating with the Dictionary Project. The first three years we distributed dictionaries only to 3rd grade students in Fayette County. Last year we increased our contribution to include all 3rd grade students in Bond County. We will be distributing more than 400 dictionaries to the 3rd grades for the 2010-2011 school year. Literacy is a high priority of Rotary, and the Vandalia Rotary Club has over the last five years been able to provide many families that have never had a dictionary in their home an invaluable tool for their children’s futures. We are a small club with only about 40 members and without the efforts of the Dictionary Project in providing low cost, quality dictionaries we would not likely be able to provide such a service to Bond and Fayette counties. All of our members enjoy the interactions with these children and look forward to the smiles and thank yous we will receive when we distribute the dictionaries to each student. Thanks again.