Every third-grade student in the Lee County School District will receive a free gift, thanks to the efforts of local Rotary Clubs. Members of the 13 Lee County Rotary Clubs joined forces to take Rotary’s Dictionary Project countywide, said Joe Donzelli, a spokesman with the school system.

Representatives of the clubs met in late April to make the commitment that no third-grader in Lee County will be overlooked. And thus was born: “Read Across Lee County.”

At 10 a.m. Friday, October 2, Rotarians will fan out across the District delivering approximately 10,000 dictionaries including bilingual editions to all third-grade students.

The Rotary Clubs ordered and paid for the dictionaries, and the District has stored the books in preparation for the distribution to students. For the delivery day, the 12 separate Rotarians Clubs have divided the District up geographically and will send out their members to personally hand each third-grade student their own dictionary, he said.

The Superintendent of Schools and School Board members plan to attend some of the schools. In Lehigh, they are scheduled to be at G. Weaver Hipps Elementary School at 1200 Homestead Rd. School board member Elinor C. Scricca and James Browder, superintendent, plan to be at the new Hipps school.

Last year’s program, which was spearheaded by Rotarians Steve Hawks and Bill Barrett, was a huge success for students, teachers, principals and Rotarians, Donzelli said. The administrators and teachers were very grateful for the Rotarians’ generosity and the students couldn’t believe the books were for them to keep, he said. The Rotarians came away from the experience with a great deal of satisfaction mostly from the outpouring of excitement and appreciation from the students, he said.