Petersburg Breakfast Rotary shares gift of dictionaries with students

Sharing is a virtue, but sometimes it is nice to have your own book. More than 400 Petersburg City Public Schools (PCPS) fourth grade students, as well as students from St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Petersburg, received new, hardback, 595-page, illustrated Merriam Webster Dictionaries on October 22 from the Petersburg Breakfast Rotary Club. The ceremony […]

October 24, 2008; 10:11 PM • by brenda p

Sharing is a virtue, but sometimes it is nice to have your own book. More than 400 Petersburg City Public Schools (PCPS) fourth grade students, as well as students from St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Petersburg, received new, hardback, 595-page, illustrated Merriam Webster Dictionaries on October 22 from the Petersburg Breakfast Rotary Club. The ceremony for the PCPS students took place at Walnut Hill Elementary School, Petersburg’s most populous elementary school.

“This will be one way to help the students move forward on the SOLs. We’re just so happy about that,” said Norma Wingfield, PCPS Director of Elementary Instruction.

It will also give them a sense of ownership and build up their vocabulary skills, according to Zelda Lynch, Principal of Walnut Hill Elementary School.

“We are working on the ‘Four Square’ writing process this year, which involves learning to use homonyms and synonyms. They can use their dictionaries to do that,” Lynch said.

The Petersburg Breakfast Rotary raises about $4,000 annually to pay for these dictionaries, which the club has given out for five years now. Gerdau Ameristeel, a major Petersburg industry; and the Cameron Foundation also helped to pay for the books this year.

“A dictionary is one of the greatest tools that you will ever have, regardless of who you and what you do,” said Rotary member Ruth Bonner.

“We felt that fourth grade is the most appropriate age for students to have a dictionary. They are getting into spelling and diction,” said Dean Freeburn, President of the Petersburg Breakfast Rotary Club.

Excited with their gifts, students were seen reading through them even as they walked back to class and as they waited in the halls between classes.

October 24, 2008 10:11 PM 0