Third-grade students at St. Croix’s Eulalie Rivera Elementary School were the proud recipients of their very own dictionaries Wednesday, a gift from the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands.
For the last seven years the Foundation has made it possible for every third grader to have his or her own dictionary.
“I am so proud and happy to get my own dictionary,” said Khadisha Goodridge, as she hugged the paperback book to her chest. “I will use it everyday.”
In the annual distribution over the last seven years 10,600 dictionaries have been given to public and private school third graders. This year 2008 dictionaries will be given out territorywide.
“The dictionaries really come in handy,” said Cheryl Willoks, principal at Eulalie Rivera. “We encourage the students to read at least 20 minutes a day, and when they come to a word they don’t know they can use their dictionary. We are grateful for the help putting literacy first in our schools.”
Helping to distribute the dictionaries on St. Croix were members of Rotary Mid-Isle.
“We love being able to help provide a resource to help children be successful in education,” said Shelby King Gaddy, president of Rotary Mid-Isle.
The dictionaries are purchased each year by the Dictionary Project Fund at CFVI.
Gretta Moorhead, a former English teacher in the St. Thomas public schools, established the Dictionary Project Fund in 2002 as a permanent fund at the CFVI. According to Moorhead, the original goal of the fund was to distribute dictionaries annually to every third grade student in the public schools. The goal has been surpassed and dictionaries are now also given to all non-public third graders.
“This is a massive organizational task that Gretta does, all out of love,” said Dee Baecher-Brown, CFVI’s president.
Third grade was identified as an ideal grade to capture and focus a child’s excitement and curiosity about words and language. Children at this age have the reading maturity to use a dictionary as a learning tool – they are becoming independent learners, Moorhead said.
Comments from fourth-grade students who have used the dictionaries a year now show the dictionaries have been put to good use.
Daquwan Renaud said the dictionary helped him to define words. He added he even helped his little sister with her vocabulary looking up words.
“I learned a lot of new words using the dictionary,” Stefanie Matthew said. “And it is my own. We all have them so I don’t have to share it.”
