York Town News
York Elks help put word power in students' hands
By Jennifer L. Saunders
Every third-grade student at Coastal Ridge Elementary School now has a brand new dictionary, thanks to the York Elks. Pictured here are, from left, Meredith Adams, Lauren Layton, Sierra Swasey and Jack Lamperin in the back row and Jonah Mitchell, Sarah Carley, Jack McDonald and Randy Zhao in the front with Jack Clines, leading knight of the York Elks Lodge, and Coastal Ridge Principal Jane Stephenson.
Photo by Jennifer L. SaundersYORK - For the second year in a row, the York Elks Lodge has donated dictionaries by the hundreds to Coastal Ridge Elementary School to help students improve their vocabulary without spending a penny.
Last Thursday, May 10, Bob Carr and Jack Clines of the York Elks visited Coastal Ridge to present nearly 200 dictionaries to the teachers and students in every third-grade classroom.
This is the second year of the program, Carr explained, making the grand total of donated dictionaries close to 400.
"We have a lodge here in town and we do a lot of fundraisers for special events," Clines then told a group of students who gathered with Principal Jane Stephenson in the Coastal Ridge library to accept the donated dictionaries on behalf of each of their classrooms.
Clines explained that such annual events as the anti-drug coloring and essay contests and the Americanism project are ways the Elks reach out to the community. Last year, he said, he became chairman of the first project to provide dictionaries to every third-grader in the York Schools. Similar projects are coordinated by Elks lodges throughout the country through grants made possible by the club's endowment.
"You'll use them here in school first and then, at the end of the school year, you get to take them home," he told the students, showing them one of the brand new dictionaries.
Stephenson explained that the students taking part in Thursday's meeting, chosen from each of the eight third-grade classrooms, would be asked to share information about the Elks and the donation with their fellow students, who received the dictionaries later in the afternoon.
"The Elks Foundation does such wonderful things for the community," Stephenson told the students.
Carr explained that the Elks across the state of Maine are also very involved in other charitable causes, including the Maine Children's Cancer Program and the Most Valuable Student scholarship program for high school seniors.
"Keep your eye out for us and our programs," Carr said.
The students were all smiles after the presentation.
"I really like this," said Sierra Swasey, a member of Deb Palmer's third-grade class. "It was a surprise."
Lauren Layton, a student in Maureen Goering's class, had a similar reaction.
"Oh my gosh," she said after hearing about all the work the Elks do and seeing the stacks of new dictionaries in her school library awaiting distribution to each classroom. "I can't believe it."
And the eight students together had two words for Carr and Clines after learning about the Elks: "Thank you."
