The Return of the Dictionary Project
PHILIPSBURG, SINT MAARTEN – September 4, 2023 – The Rotary Club of Sint Maarten announces the return of one its longstanding and most impactful projects, the distribution of dictionaries to all third grade public school students on Dutch Sint Maarten. According to Jeffrey “Dr. Soc” Sochrin, the President of the Rotary Club of Sint Maarten, “The Dictionary Project to Third Graders has been on hiatus for a number of years due to a variety of factors. We are pleased to bring this project back to the forefront. For years it was a signature project of our Club, and with the digitization of the classroom, COVID-19 and other logistics, it was not practical to relaunch this project until now.
About a month ago, our own Rotary Assistant Governor, Elisa Lake, who is also a well respected Sint Maarten educator, mentioned in passing, that even with all the digital developments, an “old school” paper dictionary provides valuable lessons to young students. With this in mind, we decided to bring this project back during September, Rotary’s Basic Education and Literacy Month.
For the past decade the Rotary Club of Sint Maarten distributed dictionaries to grade 3 students in St Maarten as part of our efforts to promote literacy. The goal of The Dictionary Project is to assist all students in becoming good writers, active readers, creative thinkers, and resourceful learners by providing them with their own personal dictionary. The dictionaries are a gift to each student to use at school and at home for years to come.
Educators see third grade as the dividing line between learning to read and reading to learn; As such, the Rotary Club of Sint Maarten is proud to give dictionaries every year to children in grade 3 in all public elementary schools on Dutch Sint Maarten. Over the past years, the Rotary club of Sintt Maarten has distributed close to 10,000 books.
This is the local execution of an internationally recognized program; The Dictionary Project is dedicated to giving dictionaries to students to keep as their own personal reference books, in the belief that a dictionary is an essential tool for a quality education and that a student cannot do his or her best work without one. We believe that a dictionary in the home serves as a resource for the whole family. It improves everyone’s vocabulary and it encourages children to learn more words.
Vice President of Club Service and Dictionary Project Chairman Kishore Idnani, and his team of Rotarians, will continue to focus on the distribution efforts during the month of September and continue the distribution effort until every Third Grader has received their very own dictionary.
\President Soc added, “We would also like to thank Anish Chugani from Avantika, Atra and Amore, who is a strong supporter of this project and has been donating the shipping cost every year our Club has executed this project. This is a wonderful example of different components of our community working together to benefit our children and their education”.
For more information about the Rotary Club of St. Maarten, please contact the Rotary Club of St. Maarten Press Officer at: pressrotarysxm@gmail.com
