Language and Learning Go Hand in Hand
Eight years of dictionaries
By: Rosanne Boyett Cibola Beacon
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Donor: Grants Fire & Rescue and local businesses

Third-grade students in four New Mexico counties will reap educational benefits this school year because community members are helping children become better readers and learners.

In early July of each year Grants Fire Chief Robert Hays begins contacting local businesses and individuals. These conversations are the initial steps in an on-going book program. For eight years he has spearheaded The Dictionary Project, which seeks donors to provide a dictionary for each third-grade student.

Over time the program has blossomed under Hays` leadership. It now reaches beyond Cibola schools and into McKinley and Catron Counties. The cu...

		Carlsbad Elks present dictionaries By: Jim Miller letter Friday, October 16, 2009 Donor: Carlsbad Elks Lodge # 1558 The Carlsbad Elks Lodge distributed dictionaries to twelve elementary schools this fall. Since 2002, Carlsbad Elks Lodge 1558 has donated over 5,000 dictionaries. Click to read full story ...
Mrs. Riley's third graders at Puckett Elementary School show their enthusiasm for their dictionaries donated by Carlsbad Elks Lodge. "Thank you Elks" has echoed throu...

Grants Dictionary Project launched

By: - Cibola Beacon
Monday, September 14, 2009
Donor: Grants Fire and Rescue Department

Grants Fire Chief Robert Hays has announced that Grants Fire and Rescue Department will spearhead this year`s Dictionary Project for community schools.

The project collects funds from local donors, purchases dictionaries from The Dictionary Project, and distributes them to third graders in elementary schools in Cibola County.

This is the seventh year of the project, which provided 651 dictionaries last year. `We hope to do as well or better this year,` said Hays. `We`re looking for community-wide participation.`

Since its inception, the book drive has provided more than 3,053 dictionaries to local third graders, which t...

Salazar Elementary School and the Salazar Partnership By: The Salazar Partnership Annual Report Saturday, November 01, 2008 Donor: The Salazar Partnership The Salazar Partnership is a program begun in 1998 that provides volunteers and other resources at Salazar and Agua Fria Elementary Schools in Santa Fe. Here are some exerpts from their most recent program evaluation: All the Partnership activities essentially provide support for students that neither the school nor Santa Fe Public Schools (SFPS) can provide. There are three broad categories. Volunteers. Volunteers primarily assist individual students or groups of students as requested by teachers, most often in reading. They also assist in meeting special needs, such as registration, eye testing, library, administra... Click to read full story ...

A student reads the dictionary he received from The Dictionary Project through the Salazar Partnership.

		Mesa View Third Graders Receive Dictionaries By: Robert Hays email communication Wednesday, September 17, 2008 Donor: CH2M Hill OMI Click to read full story ...
Mesa View Elementary third graders with some of the 500 dictionaries sponsored by CH2M Hill OMI this year

Dictionaries needed for students

By: Ashley Salazar Cibola County Beacon
Monday, July 07, 2008
Donor: Grants Volunteer Fire and Rescue and CH2M Hill OMI

GRANTS - The members of the Grants Volunteer Fire and Rescue and CH2M Hill OMI are conducting a `Dictionary Project` for the 2008-2009 school year. This will be the sixth year of the project and the first year that the groups are seeking community wide participation. The project will provide dictionaries to third grade classes in the elementary schools in the local and surrounding districts. Last year there were 672 dictionaries provided to children.
The first two cases will be sponsored by GVFR and CH2M Hill OMI and 12 more would be needed to fill the need in the area.
The dictionaries are given to children to keep and use throu...

Grants site manager proud to be a `poopologist`

By: Helen Davis Gallup Independent
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Donor: CH2M Hill OMI

GRANTS — On Tuesday March 18, Grants` resident `poopologist` was missing from the U.S. Highway 66 lift station upgrade project to accept an award in Albuquerque.

Robert Hayes, who is site manager of the project, carries a card that proclaims he is a poopologist. In Hayes` case, the designation means he is certified in Water Level 4, Wastewater Level 3, Distribution Level and Collections Level 4 — an expert on the ins and outs of the material and its travels.

Hayes said he received the John Paden Award for Excellence in Community Service for 2007 on Tuesday. He previously won the Wastewater Operator of the Year from the New Me...

		Chamiza Elementary School in Albuquerque Friday, January 18, 2008 Donor: Bernalillo County Cooperative Extension Hello, These are photos from Chamiza Elementary School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Bernalillo County Cooperative Extension Service sponsors the Bernalillo County Extension Association which is distributing the dictionaries. I am their Advisor. Patricia Aaron Click to read full story ...

		Elks Lodge #408 Friday, September 28, 2007 Donor: Elks Lodge #408 Our Elks Lodge in Las Vegas, New Mexico sponsored `The Dictionary Project` and gave away dictionaries to all local third graders....I sent you an article about a month ago and when I checked the websites Partisipation Map we were not on it for San Miguel County New Mexico....Attached is a photo from one of the distributions Keith Morris Exalted Ruler Mother Lodge #408 Las Vegas Click to read full story ...

		Dictionary Donation Friday, March 30, 2007 Donor: Telephone Pioneer Sunshine Club Each student in 2nd through 5th grade at Arrey Elementary School received a dictionary, which will be kept at school for their use.  The students and staff thank Mrs. Emory and the Telephone Pioneer Sunshine Club. Click to read full story ...
These students at Arrey Elementary School proudly show off the dictionaries donated by the Telephone Pioneers Sunshine Club. photo by Susan Taylor

Salazar Partnership gives more than dictionaries at Santa Fe schools

By: William C. Carson
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Donor: Salazar Partnership

The Salazar Partnership provides many services for students at Salazar and Agua Fria Elementary Schools in Santa Fe. In addition to providing a Webster`s English Dictionary to every student in grades three through six and Spanish/English Dictionaries to those who need them, the partnership organizes a volunteer program, a book distribution, support for fulltime nurses and physical education teachers, a health program, an art club, and other activities.

Last year, they also gave atlases to all the students leaving the sixth grade. Geography seems to be pushed aside everywhere, though it is crucial and students are generally interest...

Schools could get $26M Christmas gift

By: GARY HERRON Observer staff reporter
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Donor: BPOE Lodge #2500 and other Elks lodges nationwide

Rio Rancho Public Schools received an early Christmas present - in the form of a possible $26 million gift - last week when Gov. Bill Richardson said he wants to give the district the money for construction of two elementary schools.

The appropriation, however, will need to be approved by the Legislature at its 2006 session, which begins Jan. 17.

The possible appropriation won`t detract from the $39 million bond issue voters face on Feb. 7, said RRPS communications officer Kim Vesely.

`(A total of) $35 million of the $39 million on the new bond issue is earmarked for the new high school,` she said, `so the bond...

Getting the Words Out Saturday, December 17, 2005 Donor: Rio Rancho Elks Lodge The Rio Rancho Elks Lodge has joined a nationwide effort to put dictionaries into the hands of elementary students. The lodge`s goal this year is to give a dictionary to every Rio Rancho Public Schools third-grader. It will cost about $1,600 for the approximately 1,000 third graders in the district. The lodge is handing out the dictionaries as it buys them. Lodge members made their first drop on Friday at Puesta del Sol Elementary. The group wants to continue the project in years to come. A donation can be made by sending a check BPOE #2500, PO Box 15052, Rio Ranch, N.M. 87174. Envelopes should be addressed to... Click to read full story ...

Puesta del Sol Elementary third-graders Jacqueline, left, and Crissa, both 9, thank the Rio Rancho Elks Lodge #2500 for giving them new dictionaries they can use at s...

Schools could get $26M Christmas gift

By: Gary Harron The Rio Rancho Observer
Friday, December 16, 2005
Donor: Rio Rancho Elks Lodge #2500

Rio Rancho Public Schools received an early Christmas present - in the form of a possible $26 million gift - last week when Gov. Bill Richardson said he wants to give the district the money for construction of two elementary schools.

The appropriation, however, will need to be approved by the Legislature at its 2006 session, which begins Jan. 17.

The possible appropriation won`t detract from the $39 million bond issue voters face on Feb. 7, said RRPS communications officer Kim Vesely.

`(A total of) $35 million of the $39 million on the new bond issue is earmarked for the new high schoo...

Dictionary Project Helps Students

By: Liz Otero The Sunday Journal
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Donor: Cosmopolitan Women`s Club of Albuquerque

As part of `The Dictionary Project,` the Cosmopolitan Women`s Club of Albuquerque distributed Webster`s Student Dictionaries to 500 thirdgraders. The books were donated to Susie Rayos Marmon, Navajo, Tomasita, Carlos Rey and Hodgin elementary schools.

The club also received funds from Lockheed Martin/Sandia National Laboratories to purchase an additional 550 books. Those have been delivered to Barcelona, ` Wherry, Alameda, Duranes and Painted Sky elementaries.

The club has ordered an additional 500 books, bringing the grand total to 4,143 dictionaries.
...

Dictionaries all around! Wednesday, June 01, 2005 Donor: Cosmopolitan Women`s Club of Albuquerque A member of the Cosmopolitan Woman`s Club of Albuquerque presented an article from The Wall Street Journal, dated March 4, 2002, regarding Mary French, who has been dubbed `The Dictionary Lady` for her work in giving dictionaries to all third graders in South Carolina. She found that second grade was too early to begin using dictionaries and fourth grade was too late. The committee decided to use this as their new project. `We agreed that the city had a great literacy problem,` relates Shirley Kern, the project`s co-chairman. `News coverage indicated that at the end of the year, New Mexico remained a state with a federally depen... Click to read full story ...

Members of the Cosmoplolitan Women`s Club with the dictionaries they collected.

The joy of lex: dictionaries for young readers

By: Barbara Ferry William C. Carson
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Donor: Salazar Partnership

By BARBARA FERRY

The New Mexican

Alan Lee was many things in his life: a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign service who served in Turkey and Ger­ many , the vice president of a Midwestern corporation, and the owner of a Santa Fe real estate company. But Lee`s daughter, Elizabeth, said one of the things her father loved best was mentoring students at Salazar Elementary School .

`He really found his groove volunteering here,` Elizabeth Lee said Friday morning at

Salazar. `He loved to play the grandfather role.`

Alan Lee died last ...

Letter

Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Donor: Cosmopolitan Women`s Club of Albuquerque

March 16, 2004

Dear Ms. Kern:
Thank you very much for the contribution of dictionaries. The lives of our third graders will be much richer because of the dictionaries. The donations from the `Cosmopolitan Women`s Club of Albuquerque` is a considerate gesture and it will benefit the students immensely.

Research indicates that students consider leaving the school environment at an early age, as early as fourth grade. What the `dictionary program` does is create a sense of ownership for the third grade students, an ownership of words. Having their own dictionary at their reach makes it more possible for each student to have mor...

		Albuquerque Cosmopolitan Women`s Club Photos Saturday, January 01, 2000 Donor: Albuquerque Cosmopolitan Women`s Club March 16, 2004 Dear Ms. Kern: Thank you very much for the contribution of dictionaries. The lives of our third graders will be much richer because of the dictionaries. The donations from the `Cosmopolitan Women`s Club of Albuquerque` is a considerate gesture and it will benefit the students immensely. Research indicates that students consider leaving the school environment at an early age, as early as fourth grade. What the `dictionary program` does is create a sense of ownership for the third grade students, an ownership of words. Having their own dictionary at their reach makes it more possible for each student to have mor... Click to read full story ...
Students lining up to receive their dictionaries

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