Topsham Grange #37 Supports Schools

Topsham Grange #37 has taken on several projects in community service over the past few years. The most rewarding is participation in the national “Words for Thirds” dictionary project. For the past seven years, this program has seen Topsham Grange provide either dictionaries or technology grants to several schools in the area. Beginning in 2008, all third-grade students in Topsham and Lisbon were presented with their own personal dictionaries. With the recent merger of the Dirigo Grange in Brunswick with Topsham Grange, this program also now includes all third-graders at the Harriet Beecher Stowe School in Brunswick. When another service organization provided dictionaries to third-graders at Lisbon Community School, the Grange opted to support a computer program, “Brain Pop,” for that school with the funds that would have provided dictionaries to third graders. The computer science coordinator at that school recently announced that the program is used by all students in first through fifth grades, reaching more than 500 students in all. As a result, Topsham Grange now presents dictionaries to 186 third-graders at Brunswick’s Harriet Beecher Stowe School, an in-kind grant for 95 students at the Lisbon Community School, and a combination of dictionaries and a technology grant to 105 pupils at the Woodside and Williams-Cone Schools in Topsham. Topsham members enjoyed receiving and reading many colorful thank you notes from students from these schools at their last meeting. The Lisbon Community School also invited Topsham members to attend their “thank you pizza party” for “Community Partners.” Read Here