ORANGEBURG COUNTY, S.C. — The Rotary Club of Orangeburg Morning's literacy project put dictionaries in the hands of 900 children this year.
It's part of the club's literacy project, which aims to give a dictionary to each third grader in the Orangeburg County School District.
“Third graders, I think that that’s a pivotal point in a child’s education to start in third grade knowing how to look up words in the dictionary and find the meaning so they could be able to use them in a complete sentence," said membership chair Brenda Austin
She says it's the first year since the pandemic members have been able to make these deliveries in person. On Wednesday morning, more than 100 dictionaries were delivered to students at Marshall Elementary.
“If this one thing in reference to literacy makes an impact and improves our community then we have done our job as 'rotarians' by making the world a better place to live," said Austin.
The books were funded with the help of a Rotary Club district grant.
Next, the organization is working on a Rotary Readers project where members read to local second graders. The project is set to begin within the next month.