Panther Valley Elementary School and Our Lady of The Angels third graders are learning about the benefits of dictionaries, thanks to two local donors and the nationally known program, The Dictionary Project.

William P. Gardiner and Francis X. Koomar recently purchased 170 books and donated them to the schools.The pair donated the books because they believe "a dictionary is the key to good communication, education, career and personal growth and self confidence."Gardiner said that dictionaries are useful tools for third-grade students because third grade is when they start utilizing dictionaries for their studies.The students were thrilled and thanked Gardiner, who was present at each school for the delivery.Gardiner and Koomar have been delivering dictionaries to the schools as part of The Dictionary Project, an organization whose goal is to "assist all students in becoming good writers, active readers, creative thinkers and resourceful learners by providing them with their own personal dictionary" for the last 12 years.Over 21,096,337 dictionaries have been given through the program worldwide to date.