Cove Rotary Club distributes dictionaries in ever-changing world

Special to Leader-Press

The words hashtag, selfie and tweep were among 150 new words and definitions added to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary this year, proof of how our culture continues to expand our communication. But, some things never change and that includes the need for elementary-age students to have dictionaries to expand their own vocabularies.

The Copperas Cove Rotary Club has given nearly 700 dictionaries to CCISD third graders throughout the district over the last two weeks, continuing a program that began nearly a decade ago, Rotarian Kirby Lack said.

“Giving each student a dictionary supports the organization’s mission to further education in our community,” Lack said.

Lack told the group of third graders at Fairview/Miss Jewell that he has met students in college that still have their dictionaries from the Rotary Club. He briefly shared the mission of the Rotary Club before handing out the coveted books. Each student received a yellow dictionary emblazoned with the Rotary Club logo.

For many students like Lily Clarkson and Ryan Sykes at Fairview/Miss Jewell, this is the first time they will have their own personal dictionary.

“My whole family shares one dictionary,” Clarkson said. “It will be nice to have one of my own.”

Sykes plans on bringing his dictionary back and forth to school.

“I do not have one at home and I want to look up different words,” he said.

The excitement carried over into the lunch period as several students brought their new dictionaries outside to recess so that they could look up words with their friends.

The Copperas Cove Rotary Club has given away more than 6,000 dictionaries since the program’s inception in 2006.

Next year’s dictionaries will be different as our culture continues to change. Oxford Dictionaries announced its 2015 Word of the Year earlier this week and it's not a word at all. The pictograph called "face with tears and joy" was chosen because it was the most used emoji in the world, according to SwiftKey, a mobile technology business. The emoticon beat out the other contenders which included ad blocker, on fleek, refugee, and sharing economy for the title. The publisher currently has no plans to add any emojis to its publications.