The Lexington Park Rotary Club met as usual Monday at noon. The room was, however, unusually full had some special guests in the form of local principles, educators and School Superintendent Michael Martirano. It was dictionary day.
Dictionary Day is a Rotary initiative to distribute dictionaries to every 3rd Grader in the county.
Lexington Park Rotary Club President Michael Guy read notes from the grateful recipients of dictionaries on previous years. “I like my dictionary. Do you want to know why I like it? Because it has all the words in Maryland in it. My brother and sister like it too,” read one thank you. “I use it to do my homework. I look up space and stuff,” wrote another child, who said otherwise they would have to go to the Boys and Girls Club for a dictionary.
“By the beginning of 3rd Grade we want all our children reading at Grade level,” Martirano explained Monday. “This truly meshes with the goals we have as a school system,” he told the Rotary club after receiving his own dictionary at the lunch meeting. “We recognize some of our children do not have the means to purchase their own dictionaries,” acknowledged Martirano. “We are realizing the difference you are truly making in the lives of our children, as we work literacy goals as a community.”
The meeting closed to an impromptu rendition of “School Days.”
“Less of the hick’ry stick,” Martirano joked.
Many of the Rotarians went from their luncheon Monday to a number of schools to personally hand out the dictionaries to 3rd Graders at schools across St. Mary’s.
The Bay Net Photos from Rotary Club meeting by Anna Bedford. The Bay Net photos from the schools by John Douglass. Thanks to George Hurlburt for sharing additional photos with The Bay Net.