Third-graders at Panther Valley Elementary are learning about the benefits of dictionaries.

Area resident William P. Gardiner recently purchased 159 books and donated them to the school as part of a national program, The Dictionary Project.Gardiner said he donates the books annually because he believes a dictionary is the key to good communication, education, career and personal growth and self-confidence.On Monday, Gardiner, who formerly donated the books with Francis X. Koomar, who passed away last December, told the students that dictionaries are useful tools because they help build stronger vocabularies.He then asked the students to look up definitions of the words “school” and “trick” using the new books, and they excitedly did so.Gardiner has been delivering dictionaries to the school as part of The Dictionary Project, a nonprofit organization based in South Carolina 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 past 15 years.More than 27,924,323 dictionaries have been given to students worldwide through the program to date.