Weisenberg Elementary School is one of the 33 elementary schools in Lehigh County whose third-grade students are given their own dictionary to work with and to keep each year.

Rotarians from the Allentown West Rotary Club, for the eighth year, came to the school at the end of last year and distributed the dictionaries directly to the students and explained what is in them.

A total of 164 dictionaries eventually will be given to all third graders in the Northwestern Lehigh School District.

The Allentown West Rotarians also distribute these dictionaries to the third graders in the Parkland and Salisbury School Districts with the total about 1,000 copies costing almost $2,000 all donated by Rotary club members.

The experience of many Rotarians is that even in this digital age, personal possession of this special book means so much to so many students.

Too often, this is the only book in the house.

The goal of this program is to assist all students in becoming good writers, active readers, creative thinkers and resourceful learners by providing them with their own personal dictionary.

There are eight Rotary clubs in the Lehigh Valley with more than 400 members; and 44 clubs in the five-county District 7430 with about 1900 members.

Each is dedicated to helping others.

Rotarians believe in "Service Above Self," and initiate and implement many projects all year long that address hunger, medical and educational needs.