Giving a gift that inspires a love of reading, learning

Some Edmonds senior citizens are giving third-graders in the city the gift of words. A lot of words.

Seven members of the Edmonds Senior Kiwanis last week presented each third-grade student at Sherwood Elementary School with a paperback dictionary. Over the past month, they've handed out about 325 dictionaries at six elementary schools in Edmonds.

Teachers say third grade is when children progress from learning to read to reading to learn. A dictionary encourages their classroom efforts to become good writers and creative thinkers.

"Their writing is so much more meaningful because they're able to find new words," said Jackie Gray, a third-grade teacher at Sherwood.

The local effort is part of the national Dictionary Project, a nonprofit organization that works with local sponsors like the Kiwanis. Founded in 1995, the group says it has given away almost 7 million dictionaries to students.

Elwin Wright, chairman of the Edmonds Senior Kiwanis Dictionary Committee, apologized to the students that the dictionary handed out last week wasn't bigger. He allowed that the one in their school library was probably "a big, fat one."

But the one they held in their hands, he told them, was theirs to keep.

In addition to about 30,000 words, the dictionaries include the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, biographies of the U.S. presidents and information about all 50 states.

Not every senior — Wright is almost 79 years old — could hold the attention of two classrooms of students seated in a semicircle at his feet. But Wright's energetic manner and strong voice hints at his background. He was a teacher, librarian and principal in the Edmonds School District for 30 years.

Wright guides the students through some of the dictionary's features, including multiple meanings of the same word, as in "pass," and a pronunciation guide to unfamiliar words such as "isle." He gives them a word that might come in handy if they want to go on and on, "et cetera."

At one point, Wright pulls out a pair of batteries and tries to shove them into the spine of the book.

"Where do I put the batteries?" he asks the kids. When they shout that the dictionary doesn't take batteries, he nods wisely.

"It doesn't need batteries. You can take it wherever you want to go. You can take it to bed with you. And it's backpack-friendly," he said.

Wright doesn't do all the talking. He asks another Kiwanis senior, Bob Withey, to tell a personal story about a dictionary. Withey, a Marine for 32 years, received the Silver Star from President Reagan for heroism in Vietnam.

"I was in the Oval Office to get a medal from the president," he tells the students. "On the corner of his desk was a dictionary. There were no other books, just some papers. So hang on to it," he says. "Maybe someday you'll be in the Oval Office."

The students sing out a big thank-you to the Kiwanis.

Third-grader Madelyn Reunanen notes that her classroom has only one thesaurus, so some kids don't get to use it when they want.

"They'll help us," she said of the dictionaries.

Other students said they looked forward to learning new words and not using boring words.

Kelly Gootee said the dictionaries could continue to help them when they were grown up and looking for work.

"When you get a job, you'll need to write and spell right," she said.

Each dictionary comes with a custom bookplate attached to the first page. It reads, "This dictionary is a gift to you from the Kiwanis Club of Edmonds, Seniors. It is a gift of words. We believe it is one of the most valuable things we can give you."

Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com