Wicwas Lake Grange #292 donates dictionaries to students

ASHLAND — As a part of the Grange Student Dictionary Project, Jeanne Lowrey, Cookie Boulanger, Diane LaFavre, Claire Lebel, Don Lebel and Carrie Sweetman of the Wicwas Lake Grange #292, visited Ashland Elementary School to distribute new dictionaries to all of the third- and fourth-grade students.

The members explained some of the history of the grange and its involvement in the establishment of the RFD Mail Delivery System, the NH Electrical Coop and the State Police. The students were fascinated to learn about the mail delivery transition from the Pony Express to the Rural Free Delivery system. They also introduced the students to all of the information that the dictionary holds, including the longest word in the English language, which has 1,906 letters. The grange members also directed the students to the pages showing American Sign Language information and encouraged the third and fourth graders to learn to manually spell their name using American Sign Language.

The Grange Student Dictionary Project began in Savannah, Georgia, in 1995 in support of the "Learn to Read, Read to Learn" motto and since that time millions of dictionaries have been donated to students.