Students across Everest School District receive a different kind of gift

The Everest School District is using a simple dictionary to help get students excited about learning.

`As part of our celebration, the Everest Optimists come in and they give all of our third grade students a dictionary,` says Principal Patrick Phalen of Mountain Bay Elementary.

`Our particular club will give away about 500 dictionaries,` says David Kryshak with the Everest Area Optimists.

The Optimists say the program allows them to give something back to the community that supports them, by helping the children.

The dictionaries are made just for students, with an added encyclopedia to help them learn more than just words.

`It`s a type that they can put in their backpack. It`s pocket size and easy to use and they can carry this with them all the way through their education years,` says Kryshak.

`We have fifth graders still carrying around the dictionary they received in third grade. It`s really neat to see,` says Phalen.

But you may be asking yourself, why spend money on a book when your computer can correct your spelling for you?

`Well it`s another way to engage their minds that there`s more than one way to learn,` says Kryshak.

`It`s a tangible book. They love books and … it`s not just for spelling. It`s to learn more powerful words so they can acquire a greater vocabulary,` says Phalen.

The students were very excited to receive their books and began diving into them right away.

The giveaways were part of The Dictionary Project.

The program has given away more than 10 million books since it started in 1995.