SAN BENITO — The local Elks Club was at it again — all for the children.
During the past 12 years, the San Benito Elks Lodge #1661 has donated brand new dictionaries to every third-grade student in the district.
That meant a total of 800 dictionaries were given out this year.
Many of the children come from families who do not have electronic and handheld devices because they can’t afford them. That’s what makes these dictionaries even more important.
Some suggest the dictionary could be the only book the kids will own in their lifetime.
At Judge Oscar De La Fuente School, all the third-grade classes come into the lunch room to receive their dictionaries.
There, the students are challenged to find one specific word in their new book, for an award.
Kenneth and Shirley Morgan were on hand to give out the dictionaries and heard some interesting comments from the students.
One young girl reached into her desk and pulled out a very dog-eared old dictionary and gave it back to her teacher. She said, “I won’t need it anymore.”
In another classroom, a boy pointed to a page in the back of the book where there was a map. He showed where the tip of Texas was and said, “Look, this is where I live.”
A teacher related to her class how and when she arrived in the United States. She said one of the first things she bought was a dictionary. That helped her understand and learn the English language.
