Wallace Rotary donates dictionaries to Chinquapin third-graders

CHINQUAPIN — For as long as Rotary Club members can remember, they have donated student dictionaries to third graders. Last Friday, Duplin Journal was there when Steve and Carol Paes of the Wallace Rotary Club presented the dictionaries at Chinquapin Elementary School.

Two representatives from each third-grade class came to the lobby to accept the dictionaries and have their photo taken as part of the presentation. The students were wearing pink Friday as part of the school’s breast cancer awareness day.

Chinquapin Elementary Assistant Principal Jessica Whitman told Duplin Journal the dictionary donations from the Wallace Rotary Club are very welcome.

“We’re able to use them in the classroom as a resource and teach students how to use them,” Whitman said. “Without them, students are deferred to the internet, so having a book in their hand to teach them how to appropriately use it is very beneficial. We can do a lot of things with a dictionary.”

Carol Paes of the Wallace Rotary Club added the dictionaries’ benefits go well beyond the school since the students are able to eventually take them home.

“It also benefits the family,” she said. “They bring the dictionary home and kids that haven’t received them have access also.”

In addition to the dictionary, they each contained a colorful bookmark promoting the well-known Rotary Club Four Way Test, which encourages the use of four questions to consider before making decisions, taking action or speaking. The questions are:

1. Is it the truth?

2. Is it fair to all concerned?

3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?

4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Other local third graders who benefited from the Wallace Rotary Club student dictionary donations included students from Wallace Elementary School and Rose Hill-Magnolia Elementary School.