Stratfurd School third-grade January Government Organization officers holding their new dictionaries with Principal Diane Hopkins, left, and Rotary members Connie Deckel, General Manger, Kings Supermarket; North Fork Bank's Carmen Armstrong; and Rotary Club Member Jennifer Ferrara. Each third-grader at both Stratford and School Schools has received his or her own personal special dictionary courtesy of the Mineola-Garden City Rotary Club. Members of the Club visited the Stratford school on January 17, to distribute the book, A Student's Dictionary, and to speak with students about the origins of language and writing, as well as other community service activities performed by Rotary Club members.

The book, published by The Dictionary Project, also includes sections on weights and measures, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, maps of seven continents, information about each state, biographies of the presidents, background on the planets in the solar system, and intriguing facts -- such as the longest word in the English language, a term with 1,909 letters that describes the formula for an enzyme.

Carmen Armstrong, Vice President, North Fork Bank, speaking about how to use the dictionary and what it contains. "We have many good writers in our third grade here at Stratford and I know this gift is going to help them become even better," Principal Diane Hopkins told the visitors. The Club also recently distributed the dictionaries to third-graders at Stewart School.