Rotary to gift dictionaries to hundreds of SC students

Rotary is spreading the word.

Hundreds of South Canterbury Year Four pupils in primary schools across the district are about to receive a major – and free – boost to their educational and personal development with the gift of a personalised illustrated dictionary, courtesy of Rotary and the Community Trust of Mid and South Canterbury.

The five Rotary clubs in Area 1 and 2 of Rotary District 9980, the South Canterbury region, have collaborated for the first time in a project that Rotary District Governor Lionel Wilson of Timaru describes as a delightful and tangible way of helping to fulfil the Rotary International goal of literacy development of young people.

Seven thousand of the beautifully illustrated dictionaries will be distributed to South Canterbury schoolchildren over the next five years at a cost to the Community Trust of Mid and South Canterbury of $30,000.

The initial distribution of 800 dictionaries will be in the hands of Year Four students throughout South Canterbury within three weeks after special Rotary presentations at school assemblies. A new shipment would be distributed each February for the next five years.
Mr Wilson said the project came about after he saw the success of a similar community effort by Rotary clubs in Invercargill.

“I picked up the template and managed to convince the Community Trust of Mid and South Canterbury to underwrite the project for five years. We are so grateful to them for doing this.

“It’s taken three years for us to get this off the ground, but the arrival in Timaru this week of 1000 dictionaries has made all the effort worthwhile,” Mr Wilson said.

Sorting and personalising of the dictionaries is presently under way by the five Rotary clubs in South Canterbury, the Rotary Club of Timaru South, the Rotary Club of Timaru, the Rotary Club of Timaru North, the Rotary Club of Temuka - Geraldine, and the Rotary Club of Waimate.
Mr Wilson said the scale of the distribution undertaking meant that a collaboration of Rotary clubs was necessary.
“However, Marg Cochrane from the Rotary Club of Timaru, is the dictionary project co-ordinator and she has done a wonderful job.”
Printed by Harper Collins New Zealand, the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary normally retails at $NZ29.95.
It will be a personal gift to the students.

“The dictionary doesn’t belong to a school, it belongs to the student. However, a dictionary will also be provided to their teachers.

“It is pitched around eight-year-olds because at that age they are starting to develop, ask questions and develop their vocabulary and when you don’t have such a resource as this, then they don’t.

“Year Four is the launching pad, they can use it right through their schooling,” Mr Wilson said.

He said the Rotary initiative, which was first checked back with teachers during exhaustive surveys in June last year, was also about upskilling families.
“There are kids who will already have dictionaries at home, but there will be some families for which this will be their only book.”

It was the first time all South Canterbury Rotary clubs had collaborated in one project, he said.

“I wanted something that all the clubs could all do together, but I was just the facilitator,” Mr Wilson said.

“You can always achieve more as a team. We need to be able to make a difference to people’s lives and as individual clubs we could not have undertaken this project.”

He paid tribute to Hilton Haulage who transported the dictionaries to Timaru free of charge.

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Rotary is spreading the word: The first shipment of illustrated dictionaries has arrived in South Canterbury and checking out the beautiful illustrations are the people who made it happen. From left is Raewyn Francis, president of the Rotary Club of Waimate; dictionary project co-ordinator Marg Cochrane, of the Rotary Club of Timaru; assistant governor of Rotary District 9980 Bruce Borrell; Russell Staite, president of the Rotary Club of Timaru North; and John Wilson chairman of the Community Trust of Mid and South Canterbury, which funded the books, 1000 of which are on the pallet behind.

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Let the sorting begin: President of the Rotary Club of Temuka and Geraldine, Alistair Millar (left) assists Rotary Club of Timaru South president Ken Batchelor with dictionary distribution and personalisation tasks.

ENDS

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