In a world of digital everything – including books – the Olympia Host Lions works to instill the love of physical copies in children. For the past 21 years, the organization has donated “A Student’s Dictionary and Gazetteer” to Olympia-area schools. The Dictionary Project recently recognized them for giving out nearly 12,000 dictionaries.
Calling the Lions’ long participation in the project an “extraordinary milestone,” The Dictionary Project thanked Olympia Host Lions for “enriching and empowering generations of students with the lifelong gift of knowledge.”
By distributing dictionaries to students, Carrie Bonavita of The Dictionary Project says Olympia Host Lions are “leaving a lasting legacy of learning and inspiration throughout the community.”
The Olympia Lions’ Dictionary Project
In 2004, the Olympia Host Lions learned of The Dictionary Project at a Lions Leaders training session. The nonprofit organization has a mission “to assist all students in becoming good writers, active readers, creative thinkers, and resourceful learners by providing them with their own personal dictionary.” Dictionaries are given freely to the students at third grade level. “Educators see third grade as the dividing line between learning to read and reading to learn, so we encourage our sponsors to give dictionaries each year to children in the third grade,” The Dictionary Project says.
“This dictionary was created specifically for young students to use in their classrooms, was well received in other parts of the country, local teachers liked the format and the price was within the budget for Olympia Host Lions Club,” shares Karen Sell, Olympia Host Lions member, on why they chose the “A Student’s Dictionary and Gazetteer” for their project.
Third graders in Olympia-area schools have been the recipients of the dictionaries since 2025. “The Olympia Host Lions Club works primarily in the Olympia area so the Olympia School District is a natural jurisdiction with which to partner,” explains Karen. “We offer the dictionaries to all schools within the district. And because we have a branch of our club on the Steamboat Peninsula, we also offer dictionaries to the Griffin School District.”
Olympia-Area Third Graders Experience the Joy of Physical Books
To date, the project has cost the Olympia Host Lions $32,000. An amount they consider very well spent, especially in our digital age.
For the 2025/26 school year, a team of 15 Olympia Host Lions distributed 744 dictionaries to third graders at 12 Olympia area schools, including Centennial, Garfield, Griffin, Boston Harbor, Hansen, Madison, Pioneer, McLane, Roosevelt, Lincoln, McKenny and St. Michael’s.
They did have one school refuse the books this year, saying they want to develop the students’ online research skills. “We certainly hope that moving from using hard copy dictionaries to strictly online research is not a trend,” shares Karen. “There is some evidence that too much screen time may decrease the ability of students to learn, so a teacher who can provide offline alternatives may be providing an important learning tool.”
Karen continues by saying that there is also evidence that we absorb information differently online versus through a physical book. “Some research suggests that reading a book helps us process information more effectively because we are using multiple brain areas – feeling the book in our hands, seeing the words, and smelling the paper and ink,” she adds.
This year, a fifth-grade teacher at Ft. Stevens Elementary in Yelm requested dictionaries for her students. “The Yelm teacher heard about the dictionaries, thought they would be useful for her class and went looking for a source,” explains Karen. “Olympia Host Lions happened to have enough extra dictionaries on hand that we were able to meet her request.”
“When students get their dictionary from us, they are immediately enthralled, engaged and eager to discover all that the book provides,” Olympia Host Lions president Erik Johnson reports.
Several students mentioned they were grateful for a book of their own that they could take home. In many cases, Lions hear that the dictionary is the first book a child has ever actually owned.
You can help by donating to the Olympia Host Lions on the website. In the notes, you can put that it’s for the dictionary program.
