Members of Vestal Elks Lodge 2508 are supporting literacy goals of Vestal Central School District third graders by gifting them their very own dictionaries.

As apart of an annual tradition and a national initiative, Vestal Elks Lodge members visited all five elementary schools in the district to give a dictionary to every student in third grade.

Since 2004, the Vestal Elks Lodge members have donated over 5,200 dictionaries to kids.

The members say by giving the kids dictionaries, it will further their understanding of vocabulary and enhance their literacy skills.

Vestal Elks Lodge 2508 Exalted Ruler Rick Patton said, "This is my first opportunity seeing it and I've already handed out dictionaries to one school today and I was amazed at how excited the kids were, how they already started diving right in. So it really made a lasting impression on myself as well, how excited the kids were."