MIDDLESBORO — West End Primary third grade students will never again have to ask their teachers, “What does this word mean?”

The Middlesboro Rotary Club is sponsoring their First Annual Dictionary Project. The goal of the Dictionary Project is to help elementary age students better understand the world of literacy.

The Rotary Club’s plan is designed to aid 122 third grade students at West End Primary School. The children will be given a personalized dictionary, with their name printed inside, and a letter from the Rotary Club members will be sent home to their parents.

The club’s objective is to see that all students leave the end of the school year as good writers, active readers and creative thinkers. Each third grade student will be presented a gift: Their own dictionary. The Rotary Club hopes their gift will provide these children with a personal reference to keep, refer to and carry on into the fourth grade and throughout their school careers.

“Students benefit from an increased self-reliance and resourcefulness,” stated Samuel R. Coleman, Jr., President of the Rotary Club.

The Dictionary Project is an opportunity for children to expand their knowledge. The Rotary Club’s donations will provide the students with “consistent access to a tool for homework and in-class explorations,” said Coleman.

A presentation ceremony will be held Wednesday, Sept. 17 at West End Primary School. Rotarians anticipate telling a third grade audience what their club means and what they do for the community, in addition to presenting them with their dictionaries.

In order to sponsor the Dictionary Project, the Rotary Club is holding a fundraising event, the “Rotary Fundraiser for Literacy-Win Free Gas!” The grand prize will be $1,000 gas give-away. Donations are $5 per ticket and all proceeds will benefit the literacy projects and scholarship awards of the Middlesboro Rotary Club. Tickets are available now through Oct. 5. The drawing for a winner will be held at the Cumberland Mountain Fall Festival Rotary booth. For further information, call (606) 242-1018.

Sarah Miracle is a staff writer for the Daily News. She can be reached via e-mail at smiracle@middlesborodailynews.com.

Pictured are the members of the Middlesboro Rotary Club during Monday’s luncheon held at Community Trust Bank. Rotarians prepared for their upcoming Dictionary Project by attaching labels and inserting letters into 122 dictionaries that will soon be gifted to third graders at West End Primary School.

(SARAH MIRACLE/ Middlesboro Daily News)