Elks leave students with gift of knowledge
“Elks Care, Elks Share” were the words of the day Oct. 10, when members of the Lake Almanor Elks Lodge visited the third-grade class at Chester Elementary School to present free dictionaries to students.
Elk members Dave Aitken, Bud Wasson and Kathy Wasson were warmly greeted by 24 smiling students, their teacher John Goolsby and principal Alan Reeder.
Providing students with dictionaries to take home to study is a project undertaken by Elks Lodges across the country.
“We hope to have a positive educational experience and empower our young people to become concerned citizens and future leaders,” stated Wasson. “The gift of words is invaluable.”
During the presentation students participated in discussing several words such as aardvark, scholarship and facetious.
It was fun for all discovering that the first word in their dictionary began with two rather than one letter “A” and that Aardvarks are ant and insect eating mammals of sub-Saharan Africa.
And looking at their picture in the dictionary they appeared rather cute, the students agreed
A one-dollar bill placed in each student’s dictionary — a most welcome bookmark — marked the word “scholarship”!
The class learned that many organizations such as the Elks award scholarships earned by worthy high school seniors, further aiding their education after they graduate.
Last year the Lake Almanor Lodge No. 2626 presented scholarship awards in excess of $6,000 to students.
The somewhat infrequently used word “facetious” was then spelled out on the white board for students to learn the meaning.
They discovered that this word not only includes all five vowels, A E I O U, but in alphabetical order!
Lastly, the third-grade level dictionaries given out included reference materials including maps and information on all 50 states, world country maps, the Declaration of Independence and the U. S. Constitution, all providing an important foundation and value for future educational studies.
