Newport-Irvine Rotary Club purchases 800 dictionaries for IUSD third-graders

Hundreds of Irvine third-graders are about to find themselves short on excuses for misspelled words. That's because the Rotary Club of Newport-Irvine plans to donate more than 800 Webster student dictionaries to third-grade students at nine IUSD schools.

Rotary Club President Junius Jaubert and colleagues from the venerable service organization will personally deliver books to 95 kids at Brywood Elementary School on Monday. Third-graders from eight other campuses – College Park, Culverdale, Deerfield, Eastshore, Greentree, Springbrook, University Park and Woodbury – will receive their dictionaries throughout the week. “It is the hope of the Newport-Irvine Rotary Club to provide student dictionaries to the third-graders of the remaining thirteen elementary schools next year,” Jaubert said. “The majority of Rotary clubs worldwide support this organizational emphasis on literacy through a wide variety of literacy projects.” Rotary, as described on its website, "is a worldwide service organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world." The dictionaries to be donated have been jointly funded by a Rotary grant and the Newport-Irvine Rotary Club Foundation.