Third grade students at every elementary school in Dawson County received a visit Oct. 24 from a local educational advocacy group.

The Reading Education Association of Dawson County, or R.E.A.D., visited the four schools across the county to hand out dictionaries to every student in third grade.

R.E.A.D., an advocacy group for family literacy services, works with and within the local educational facilities to promote literacy to children, adults and any age in between in Dawson County.

"We really want to help provide the tools to make learning easier and fun so that all of our kids stay in school and graduate from high school," said Sandy Lipkowitz, R.E.A.D. executive director.

Lipkowitz said that it was such a joy to be able to go see each of the students and hand deliver them an educational tool that would go with them throughout their life.

"This, for all of us, is one of our most fun days out of the year," she said. "We really just love to go out and meet the children and give them their dictionaries."

According to Lipkowitz, R.E.A.D partnered with BB&T Bank and H&R Block this year to provide the dictionaries to the students.