Dictionary Project

Rotary Donates 1,000 Dictionaries    

The Olathe Rotary Club has given 1,000 Spanish/English dictionaries to the district to help non-English speaking parents and students in the community. The dictionaries were also given to International Language programs at all four high schools as well as English Language Learners (ELL) instructional services and Spanish survival classes across the district.

The donation was funded by a joint Rotary District Simplified Grant and the local Rotary Club. Heather Oliva-Martinez, ELL coordinator for the district, worked with Rotarian Bob Wilhelm to coordinate the sizeable dictionary donation.

"The Olathe School District was fortunate to benefit from the generosity of the Rotary Club," Oliva-Martinez said. "As our students learn a language, either Spanish from our International Language program or English from our ELL program, it is important that they develop the skills to enhance their own understanding of the language. The dictionaries give them the opportunity to do so, either in class, or independently of classroom instruction.   "The dictionaries are just one more tool that helps students excel and achieve academic goals," she said.

According to Wilhelm, Rotary hopes to support this program as long as it is needed because it represents one way  Rotary members live up to their motto of "Service Above Self."  Rotary International is the world's oldest service club, with 1.2 million members made up of business men and women in more than 166 countries.                                                             

(Photo: Sandra Calvo, right, works with instructor Alina Walther, who is using a Spanish/ English dictionary donated by the Olathe Noon Rotary Club. Calvo attends a weekly English survival class at Ridgeview Elementary School.)