League Gives School 440 Dictionaries

The fifth-graders barely had time to take in the colorful, glossy cover of the new dictionaries before their teacher, Brian Matthews, made them look up last night’s vocabulary word: whimpering.

It was an assignment Matthews was happy to give Thursday as volunteers from the Assistance League of San Fernando Valley distributed more than 400 children’s dictionaries at Montague Charter Academy.

The donation was part of the group’s Operation School Bell project, in which they provide needed supplies to 12 local schools, including books, clothing, backpacks and lice kits.

“We have bright and well-behaved kids . . . but they lack economic resources,” curriculum advisor Tullio Picardo said of the school, which is 95% Latino.

Many students, he said, come from families that cannot afford educational materials.

“For their parents, it’s like ‘Do you buy the $40 dictionary or do you eat?’ ”

The Assistance League learned the school needed dictionaries last October when it contacted the school’s principal a month before its annual tea fund-raiser.

Parents wanted up-to-date dictionaries that their children could bring home and use to complete assignments and improve their English skills.

By November, the group had received a $3,000 donation from Boeing employees in Arcadia to purchase the 440 Webster’s New World dictionaries.

Over the sounds of oohs and ahs, third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students lined up to receive a dictionary.

“It’s pretty cool,” said fourth-grader Avianna Melero, as she flipped through the weighty, 896-page book. “It has more words than the other one.”

Nancy Connolly, Avianna’s teacher, said the previous dictionaries--some nearly 15 years old--were dilapidated and not geared to children.

“Many of the kids are in homes where the parents are not fluent in English,” she said. “This will be in the home and a resource to the entire family.”

Ten-year-old Sergio Galvez appreciated the donation, but as he browsed the pages, he said: “I guess this means more homework.”