Kiwanis projects support third grade readers

Laura Young
ECB Publishing, Inc.

The pizza on the menu at the Monticello Kiwanis lunch meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 9, appealed not only to the members in attendance but also to their special guests, Indy Mack's Third Grade Class at Jefferson County K-12 (JCS).
Kiwanis has two service projects that focus on third grade students: Mr. Max's Program, which is a reading support project in Mack's class at JCS, and The Dictionary Project, which is part of a nationwide program.
Kiwanis Member Max Bilinski has been volunteering regularly in Mack's class this year during their reading time. He invited the third grade students to join in on one of the club's recent weekly luncheons to demonstrate their reading proficiency.
“Fall in!” said Bilinski as the meeting got underway.
With military discipline, the students rose from their chairs and lined up at the front of the Jefferson Country Club dining room. Their sweet voices gave a youthful rendition of “My Country 'Tis of Thee” and then led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Kiwanis President Stephen Trent responded, “It's great to be of service to you, and we really appreciate you being here today to show us what our community is becoming. We see that enthusiasm that each one of you has. We look forward to you being here with us and being a part of the citizenry of Jefferson County and U.S. citizens. The way you did the pledge was really moving.”
Bilinski began the day's program by telling how he had seen Mack at the JCS Tigers' first home football game. He asked her if she was still teaching third grade, and when she said “yes” he asked if she would mind if he came out there to volunteer. Since that spontaneous meeting, he's been going to her class twice a week.
“In order to right the ship,” said Bilinski of his motivation for the service project, “everybody in the community has got to pull an oar.”
As the students prepared to read to the group from their text, Bilinski shared how impressed he is with the rigorous level of material the students are using.
Mack added, “I just want to say thank you for inviting us here today. We are really, really, really honored to be a part of Mr. Max's program. That's what we affectionately call him: Mr. Max. He has been coming out every Tuesday and Thursday with us for about an hour every day to read with a small group of students, and he also does show and tell. We have been lucky enough to see some of his artifacts and exhibits that he has stored up over the years [including a rhinoceros tooth]. He loves working with our students, and our children love Mr. Max.”
Third grader Skye Guzman took to the stage first.
“Good afternoon,” she began. “Thank you for inviting us here today. I will be reading a page in my third grade reading book. We have been learning how to classify animals.”
She then proceeded to a polished reading of a page all about fish, the most common vertebrate in the animal kingdom, while classmate Cesar Gunera held up pictures to illustrate.
McKenzie Ford went next, beginning with “Thank you very much for inviting us here today. Mr. Max has helped us in small groups.”
She then read information about other animals that are also classified as vertebrates.
Maurice Arnold, had the next turn, saying, “Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting us here to day. I will be reading to you from my third grade reading book.”
He read an explanation of why humans are classified as vertebrates and led the audience to touch their own backbone as a way to relate themselves to the information.
Finally, Scarlett Odoski, walked to the stage and said, “Good afternoon. We really appreciate your hospitality.” Her reading focused on animals that do not have a backbone, the invertebrates. Some interesting examples of invertebrates that she informed through her read-aloud are flies, wasps, beetles, ladybugs, butterflies, cockroaches, earthworms, spiders, lobsters, shrimp and crabs.
With a “that's all for now” from Odoski, the program then turned to The Dictionary Project, spearheaded this year by Kiwanis Members Nicholas Pellito and Jill Denton.
“We are so proud and so excited to have you here,” said Pellito. “We are excited to give you your very own dictionary.”
The students lined up to receive their dictionary, and then Pellito and Denton led the group in some dictionary games to explore their new gift. Dictionaries are also being distributed in this manner to all third grade classes in the county, a service Kiwanis has been conducting in the community for more than ten years.
The Dictionary Project began in 1992 in Savanna, Ga., when Annie Plummer gave 50 dictionaries to students at a school close to her home. She continued her cause year after year, eventually presenting the children of Savannah with 17,000 dictionaries in her lifetime. In 1995, The Dictionary Project was officially formed as a nonprofit association. In 2002, the project took on a national purpose, being adopted and refined by individuals, businesses and civic organizations all over the country, including the Kiwanis Club of Monticello. To date nationwide, more than 35 million children have received dictionaries through this program! For more information about The Dictionary Project, visit www.dictionaryproject.org.
For information about joining the Kiwanis Club of Monticello, contact the Membership and Club Growth Committee through Gary Wright at (850) 997-5705 or Lgwright39@embarqmail.com.