South Orangetown Rotary encourages literacy

The South Orangetown Rotary Club continued its efforts to support education in the community by giving dictionaries to nearly 300 third-grade students at Tappan Zee Elementary School Wednesday.

Orange & Rockland Utilities contributed $450 to the project.

"Every third grader in the district gets his or her own dictionary as part of the South Orangetown Rotary Club’s Literacy Project," said Bruce Woolley, the club’s dictionary project coordinator. "This is the seventh year we have distributed dictionaries here, and we are pleased to partner with O&R on this project."

O&R Public Affairs Director Tom Brizzolara is a member of the South Orangetown Rotary.

"We hope that these books will help impart a strong sense of, and appreciation for, words; their meaning, their importance and their power. Words are the keys to everyday life, knowledge and success. Those keys can help open up the whole world for these students."