(Please see the article `Elks fulfill promise` below for more information about Ravi and the Braille dictionary.)

There are so many people in our area and outside who are taken by the dictionary program and by Ravi`s story.

I wish you could have been here when we gave her dictionaries to her.  It was wonderful!  She could hardly smile for a picture because she was so excited.  It has been so rewarding, as it has each time we give to the third-grade students in our county.  Thanks so much for coming up with this wonderful program!

Ravi`s dictionary was 14 volumes.  Her teacher, Mrs. Strictland, told her that she was going to have her husband build a special bookcase in their classroom for her dictionaries.

Ravi read to us that this dictionary was for 3rd to 7th grade.  Another Elkette in Georgia was so taken with my story of Ravi that she got in contact with the School of the Blind in Macon, and they said they will help us get her the next level (8th-12th grade) if she is still in Georgia.

A few other wonderful stories:

After telling the children what we were doing (I said `We are giving these dictionaries to you`), one child raised his hand and said, `Tomorrow do we have to bring $2.00 to pay for them?`  I said, `No, they are free!`  Another child raised his hand and said, `My dad said nothing in life is free.`  Then I had to say, `Your dad is right.  These are a gift to you from Eatonton Elks and Elkettes.`

A little girl came up to me in Walmart and asked if she could give me a hug.  In this day and age you really don`t know what to say.  She went on to say that I was the lady who gave her a dictionary and that she loved it and she just wanted to say `Thank you` with a hug.  I got a wonderful hug!

My husband and I were in another store when a little girl came up to us and said, `I sure hope I didn`t do something wrong.  My little brother in 1st grade needed to know something and I let him use my dictionary that you all gave me.`  We told her it was fine and that in two years he would have his own.

We always ask the students to read the five long words on page 364 of A Student`s Dictionary.  Someone always comes up with the last word, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

We also have them look at page 366, the periodic table of the elements, and find `Eatonton.`  We tell them that is if they can find Eatonton, they will get another dictionary.  We always have one or two who manage to find `Eatonton` in the periodic table.