Courtesy Photo Rocky Roland, last year’s president of the Kiwanis Club of Alpena, gives out dictionaries to third graders at Wilson Elementary School on Nov. 5.

Members of the Kiwanis Club of Alpena are visiting every third grade classroom in the Alpena Public Schools district, as well as the Posen Community School, All Saints School, Immanuel Lutheran School and the APS Partnership (home school partners at Sunset School) third grades.

Every year the Kiwanis Club gives a dictionary to every third-grader. This year they are distributing approximately 320 dictionaries to 10 different schools.

Though many functions of dictionaries are now available electronically, feedback from the teachers and students indicates that hard copy dictionaries are very useful in teaching aspects of grammar, spelling, and logical thinking. For many students this is the first book of their own that they ever receive.

Distributing dictionaries is only one of several projects that the Kiwanis Club of Alpena accomplishes to support the Kiwanis mission of “serving the children of the world.”

One of the most popular and heavily used projects is the Kiwanis Kiddie Park located in Bayview Park next to the bandshell. One of the most visible projects is the Flags of Honor Over Alpena project, where the Kiwanis Club partners with the Booster Club to display more than 400 American Flags along sections of Washington Avenue and along Chisolm Street across from the hospital on five holiday periods throughout the year.

The Kiwanis Club meets at 11:45 a.m. every Monday at Twin Acres 19th Hole Restaurant in Alpena.

For information, search social media for #kidsneedkiwanis.