The idea of Rotary Clubs distributing dictionaries started in South Carolina.
The Blairstown Rotary Club recently distributed personalized dictionaries to third-graders in four elementary schools: Blairstown, Frelinghuysen, Knowlton and Hope townships.
The idea began in South Carolina by a woman named Mary French, who used her own money to purchase and deliver dictionaries to 86 school districts and 580 elementary schools. A visiting Rotarian from Cedar Grove, N.J, Bob Pityo, adopted the same procedure on 2001 for the New Jersey elementary schools. It has now gone nationwide with 11.5 million dictionaries distributed to third-grade students throughout North America.