Representatives of the South Orangetown Rotrary Club and Orange & Rockland Utilities presented dictionaries to the third trade students at Tappan Zee Elementary School, nearly 300 of them, last week.
This is the eighth year the South Orangetown Rotary has made the donation as part of its efforts to support education in the community. O&R made a $450 donation to support the project.
"Every third grader in the district gets his or her own dictionary as part of the South Orangetown Rotary Club's Literacy Project," said Bruce Woolley, coordinator of the club's dictionary project. "This is the eighth year we have distributed dictionaries here and we are pleased to partner with O&R on this project."
Rotarians James Foley and Bob Kleinberger, O&R Public Affairs Manager Michelle Damiani and South Orangetown Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ken Mitchell joined Woolley for the presentation.
"We hope that these books will help impart a strong sense of, and appreciation for, words, their meanings, their importance and their power," said O&R Public Affairs Director Tom Brizzolara, a member of the South Orangetown Rotary Club. "Words are the keys to everyday life, knowledge and success. Those keys can help open up the whole world for these students.”
Photo courtesy Mike Donovan at O&R. Pictured from Left to Right: Rotarians James Foley and Bob Kleinberger and student Tessa Lanni. Middle row: Cooper Stone, John Seltzer, Lonnie Whatley, Emily Moran and Ailisha MacDonnell. Front row: Rotary Dictionary Project Coordinator Bruce Woolley, S. Orangetown Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ken Mitchell and O&R Public Affairs Manager Michelle Damiani.
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