Through the combined efforts of the Pinehurst, Sandhills, Carthage and Southern Pines Rotary clubs, all third-graders in Moore County received a new dictionary to start 2012 with a new perspective on learning.

The program, which was the brainchild of Cynthia Kent Mills, of the Southern Pines Rotary Club, is in its ninth year. This year area Rotary clubs raised $10,900 for the dictionaries. A District Rotary grant for $1,800 helped the cause.

Third-graders are chosen to receive the books to encourage their interest in reading. Knowing how to read as a rising fourth-grader is pivotal in a child's success - in school and in life. If a child cannot read by this time, he may fall considerably behind with little chance to catch up to his classmates who read. Part of this is due to the fact that children will lose their frame of reference to match what they read to real life.

Lynn Thompson, director of the Southern Pines Library, agrees.

"There is a window of opportunity in the brain development of a child," she says. "If the synapses does not occur by age 8, children have difficulty making up the deficit. By the end of third grade, students must shift from learning to read to reading to learn."

The first group of third-graders who received dictionaries from local Rotarians are finishing up their senior year in high school this year.

The Southern Pines Rotary Club meets every Friday for lunch at the Mid Pines Country Club in Southern Pines. Visit www.southern pinesrotary.org.