It’s become a tradition. Each year, the Wallkill East Rotary pays a visit to each of the four elementary schools in the Pine Bush Central School District: Circleville, Pakanasink, Edward J. Russell and Pine Bush Elementary. The group presents every third-grade student with a dictionary of their very own to keep.

Dr. William Bassett, a member of the Rotary and a former superintendent of Pine Bush schools, explained that one of the group’s service areas is youth. This is Rotary’s way of contributing to the youth in the community, their education and literacy.

The students were thrilled, eagerly thumbing through their new dictionaries. 

“This is a wonderful program by the Wallkill East Rotary,” said Superintendent Tim Mains, who recited a poem he wrote, “Ode to the Dictionary.” “We want our students to become enthusiastic readers and writers. This gift of a dictionary will help them on their way.”

Each class thanked the Rotary members, some with letters written collaboratively, others with oversized thank you cards. EJR students even created a video thanking the Rotary and showing them how they are using their new dictionaries.

Wallkill East Rotary has been distributing the dictionaries to Pine Bush third-grade students since 2008, reaching more than 4,000 students.