In its continuous efforts to give back to the community, “We Love Rainier WA,” a local community enrichment organization, has provided local third graders with dictionaries for three years.
George Johnson, with “We Love Rainier WA,” said, this year, the organization partnered with Twin Star Credit Union, which donated money to purchase the dictionaries.
Johnson said the dictionaries they’re giving out this year are “more than just dictionaries,” as they features all 50 states, all 46 presidents, different geographical information, different countries from around the globe, information from the Constitution and more.
“It’s as much of an almanac as it is a dictionary,” Johnson said. “It’s amazing, too, that a lot of these third graders keep their dictionary throughout their years of schooling. We’ve heard of one third grader from years past that took it to college with them. It’s a tool that they’ll use for many years to come. It’s truly amazing. They use them right through high school here, too. We have them put their names in the book so it doesn’t get lost.”
Johnson said “We Love Rainier WA” is working on setting a date with Rainier Elementary to provide the dictionaries. He added the organization will also go to Eagle View Christian School in Yelm to donate more dictionaries.
The dictionary drive initially began with the Rainier Lions at the helm, Johnson said. After the group disbanded “several years ago,” Johnson said he and “We Love Rainier WA” felt the program was great for the local youth and wanted to continue the dictionary drive.
“We feel that it’s important that these kids can go to a book to get the answer for their questions. It’s a great tool, an educational tool, and these kids really love these books,” Johnson said. “We’re happy to do it. We continue to try to do things that help with school as much as possible.”
Johnson added that “We Love Rainier WA” will host a clothing drive for local children. He said the drive will focus mainly on items such as pants and underwear for local school kids to access to finish their school day dry.
“We will keep this around for as long as we can. Even if something happened to ‘We Love Rainier WA,’ I’d try to find someone to continue that program for the kids,” Johnson said. “To quote Gary Edwards, kids are only 30 percent of our population, but they’re 100 percent of our future. It’s so true. We want to do our best in making their learning experience fun.”
