Third graders at Our Lady of The Angels Academy and Panther Valley Elementary are learning about the benefits of dictionaries.

Area residents William P. Gardiner and Francis X. Koomar recently purchased 169 books 12 for OLOAA and 157 for PV and donated them to the schools as part of the nationally known program, The Dictionary Project.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 recently told the classes that dictionaries are useful tools because they help build stronger vocabularies.He added that Koomar wished he could be there, but was unable to attend. Koomar recently celebrated his 98th birthday.Gardiner asked the students to look up definitions using the new books and they excitedly did so.The students were thrilled and thanked Gardiner, who was present at each school for the delivery.Kressa Dowling, third-grade teacher at OLOAA, said that the books are "greatly appreciated.""It's a tool that the students will need throughout their lives," she said.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 13 years.Over 22,301,678 dictionaries have been given to students worldwide through the program to date.