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By Ann Areson |
Upwith:
Tell me about the dictionary project.
Mary: It's a program designed to
raise money to buy dictionaries for all the third grade students
in Charleston, Dorchester, and Berkeley counties.
Upwith: How did you get involved
with it?
Mary: I read a letter to the editor
in the Post & Courier on April 30, 1995 from Bonnie Beeferman.
She was asking in that letter for someone in Charleston county
to start a dictionary project here because there were teachers
from Charleston county who had asked her for dictionaries,
and she couldn't provide them to this county. She raises money
for Beaufort and Jackson counties. So I responded, and I said
that I would like to try to do that.
Upwith: The dictionary project...is
that part of a national movement, or a state movement or...?
Mary: It was started by a woman
in Savannah, Georgia. Her name is Annie Plummer, and she's
a black woman who only has a sixth grade education. She's
a cleaning lady and a crossing guard, and she thought about
ways to get children more interested in school in her community
in Savannah. She saw that they weren't...I guess you could
say, as eager to learn as she'd hoped they would be. And she
knew how hard it is to get a job and to basically function
in society without an education.
Upwith: Well, raising money for
dictionaries for every third grader in three counties...how
many dictionaries are you talking about?
Mary: It's about 8,000 dictionaries
every year.
Upwith: Wow. And how much do the
dictionaries cost?
Mary: Seventy-five cents each.
Upwith: Which dictionary do you
purchase?
Mary: Webster's New Concise Dictionary.
Upwith: Tell me more about how you
got started. You read a letter, responded to it, and suddenly
you're raising money for 8,000 dictionaries a year?
Mary:
I wrote to all the banks in the area and all the supermarkets.
The response was very small, like $30, $50, $100 from someone
I knew. Then Publix wrote back, and said that they needed
a 501C(3) letter from the IRS. I had no idea what that was,
and I started asking everybody I knew. They all suggested,
"Go to a lawyer."
Upwith: Tell me, here, how it works.
Mary: Publix wanted a 501C(3) letter.
I did what I had to do to get it. I filed it and got it in
October 1996. Mr. Reed, he's a big contributor to the program,
he read about it in the newspaper, and said he wanted to participate
and meet me. And he's visited schools with me.
Upwith: What happens when you visit
a school?
Mary: I tell the children that the
dictionaries are a gift to them from different businesses
in the community, unless it's a specific business in Berkeley
county or Dorchester county where we can put a label (in the
dictionary). And, if I can, I get someone from that particular
business to visit the school with me so that they can meet
the children. Then I tell them to put their names in the dictionary,
so that if they ever lose it, someone could find them and
give it back to them. I tell them it's something for them
to keep and to use for homework and school, and to take with
them to the fourth grade. And then we look up "knowledge."
Most third graders cannot spell knowledge, probably 95% of
them cannot. We read the definition and the sentences that
follow. Then we look up "power." And I tell them,
if they don't know, that power is a guide word. Eighty or
ninety percent of the children don't know what a guide word
is. Then I write "Knowledge is power" on the board,
and ask them to write me and tell me what it means to them.
Then we look up words that they want to know.
Upwith: What if I wanted to make
a donation? How would I go about it?
Mary: Write a check to The Dictionary
Project. Send it to P.O. Box 1845, Charleston, SC 29402.
Upwith: Do you think it'll make
a difference? The dictionary project?
Mary: Yeah. And I'm trying to think
of ways that it can make more of a difference. Because giving
children a dictionary definitely has a very touching impact
on some of them. Some of the are overjoyed to get it, because
they really feel it's going to help them with their schoolwork,
and they are really concerned about not being able to make
it. Others could care less. And it's not that they're bad.
They just don't think learning words is important. They're
more interested in their nail polish, and what they're wearing
to school, and that type of thing.
Upwith: Tell me just a little bit
more about yourself and this project.
Mary:
This project is something I love doing. I never run out of
energy or hope. I never get discouraged with this project.
There have been times when I felt that the money wouldn't
be there, but I just went ahead and wrote more letters or
made more phone calls. I was very persistent and I've learned
a lot. I've felt that the children really reciprocated their
appreciation, in fact, in many cases more than the principals
of the schools. They were very touched by the community's
interest in their education. And it really has nothing to
do with me personally. But it's just the feeling that the
people in the community are interested in them.
I got the money from the Junior League
of Charleston to finish the project. It was $500 that I needed.
I was calling every school board member in Charleston to get
some kind of a donation or ask them who they could think of
that I could ask for money. And Larry (Kobrovsky) and Liz
Austin and Jeff Wagner were the only ones who responded in
a constructive way.
I feel that this is an altruistic program.
I think people and businesses that give a donation should
get credit, and even then, it's not a whole lot of credit.
They are listed with 10 or 15 other businesses and it doesn't
say who gave what. So it has to be very altruistic on their
part. |
