| APRIL 9, 2010 -- The Stafford Grange continued its 143-year-old tradition of helping out in the community on March 30, by handing out dictionaries to 126 fourth-graders.
During a short ceremony at the Stafford Elementary School, Edward Festi, a Grange member for 50 years and currently the secretary, gave a short presentation about the history of the Grange and the community service it does.
After the ceremony, Festi and two other Grange members, Milo Bradway, a member for 65 years, and Myron Avery , a member for 55 years, handed out the bright yellow bound dictionaries to eager hands.
"This was part of a National Grange project to promote reading," Festi said. The Stafford Grange worked in collaboration with the Connecticut State Grange to order the books and deliver them to the schools.
Dictionaries were also handed out at the St. Edwards School, in a similar program earlier the same day.
Students were given the chance to ask questions and every hand shot up for a chance to be called on by Festi.
"When did you get your first dictionary?" one student asked of Festi.
The program lasted 20 minutes and the questions had to be cut short so the students could go back to class.
"They asked a lot of intelligent questions," said Tracy Rummel, a member of the Stafford Board of Education, who was attending the program.
"This is cool, because if I ever get stuck on a word I don't know, I can look it up," said Brody, 10. "I can use it to look up spelling words," said Alison, 10.
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