MA Elks proudly Support Youth!

The Elks Literacy Project, commonly referred to within the Order as The Dictionary Project, is a long-standing community literacy initiative supported by the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. It’s one of the most widespread and impactful Elks youth programs nationwide.

THE LIERACY PROJECT UPDATE February 2026

We are aware that, since the pandemic, Lodges have found it more and more difficult to distribute Dictionaries due to the move toward Chrome Books. Some Lodges have begun to offer “readers” to be purchased as an alternative

to the dictionary. The problem then arose because readers stayed in the classroom and thus no books were ordered the following year.

Here’s a quick run down of what is happening:

39 Clubs/Organizations have participated in Massachusetts: 18 Rotary; 9 Grange; 14 Elks Lodges; Misc. for a total of 10,129 Dictionaries. (Lynn Rotary distributed 1296. I think I know from where that number came!!) The Elks distributed 4,316 thus far: Westfield/West Springfield (1080); Hyannis (840); Tewksbury/Wilmington (624) being some of the contributors. From 24 to 408 dictionaries from Lodges make up the balance.

Ideas keep coming in: for those Lodges who give to food pantries, put a dictionary in the box or bag and be sure the book has your label on it; boxes for Veterans put a Student Dictionary and Animal Gezeteer ‘book’ inside for interesting reading.

There are many options by which you can publicize your Lodge and benefit the recipients.

Also: to help me keep a more accurate progress of our Project, can you send me the number of Readers you may have contributed, and/or the number of Chrome Tablets you purchased.

Thanks for your help

The Literacy Project Team

Questions: 774-279-2796

Sincerely,

Bob Anspach

State Chairman

Dictonary Project

The Dictionary Project was founded in 1995 by Mary French of Charleston, SC. It’s primary focus is to promote literacy to children in third-grade as they transition from learning how to read to identify and use information. Over the course of the program nearly 15 million third-grade students have received dictionaries including about 2.5 million dictionaries donated in 2009.

Elks joined this movement in 2004. Nationwide they have donated more than 1.2 million dictionaries to third-grade students and their teachers as sponsors of The Dictionary Project over the last 6 years. There are 600 lodges that actively participate in the program. To see if your nearest lodge participates in this program, find a lodge near you by clicking here.

Did you know your Lodge can use the ENF Gratitude Grant to purchase dictionaries?

Hyannis Lodge #1549 was able to deliver over 600 dictionaries and other reference books to 43 third grade classrooms and 8 home-schooled children as part of the Literacy Project and they used the C.I.P. Grants Program for the funding!