Elks Lodge donates books to students
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
Third graders from Chavez Elementary School hold up dictionaries given to them by the Madera Elks Lodge.
The Madera Elks Lodge gave its annual gift of new dictionaries to third-graders on Wednesday. “The Best Dictionary for Students” is aimed specifically for third-grade level students.
“Madera Elks, for 10 years since 2007, has been giving dictionaries to third-grade students,” said Madera Elks dictionary project chair Timi Milor. “Our grand lodge has sanctioned the dictionary projects for the Elk Lodges, and the Madera Lodge has taken this project on for those 10 years.”
The Elks have arranged for the dictionaries to go to four school districts: Madera Unified, Alview-Dairyland Union, Golden Valley Unified, and Chowchilla Elementary.
Money for the project was raised by the lodge’s annual Dinner for Dictionaries event.
Two orders of dictionaries have been made, with the first being for 1,800 books, and the second for 500 books.
The Madera Elks Lodge is also a sponsor of Red Ribbon Week, and has enlisted its own mascot, Elroy the Elk, to help educate children in the community about staying away from drugs. The project chair for Red Ribbon Week is currently Deborah Samora, the drug awareness chairman for the Madera Elks Lodge.
So far, dictionaries have been given out to Parkwood, Millview, and Cesar Chavez Elementary School. According to Milor, charter schools also have been added to the lodge’s list.
