There's always room for the Grange. Thursday morning, May 6, Chris Shook proved it.

Talking to third graders in Burnham School, she told them, "If you can grow a flower or vegetable on your plot of ground, you're a farmer... and I'm sure you're all good Grangers."

Ms. Shook was at the school along with Dee and Wally Domroe, Betsy Adams, and Grange Youth Chair Cindy Bennett to give dictionaries to students as part of a national Grange community activity.

The Dictionary Project, which started in 1995 by Mary French in South Carolina and is now becoming a national movement, aims to put a new dictionary in the hands of every third grader - the year in school when such a book becomes very important for the first time.

Ms. Shook said the National Grange took up the idea as a special education project, just as Rotary Clubs have done in many states, and her Grange spent the money to buy the dictionaries for Burnham kids.

"We all have to have projects, based on what's needed most in our communities. In our ritual, we have to promote education. We donate to the Future Farmers of America, we give a $500 scholarship to a Bridgewater student graduating from Shepaug High School and we contribute to the Shepaug Valley Senior Project Association."

The Bridgewater Grange also offers a campership to Grange camp, sends dog food to animal shelters each quarter and contributes to the Connecticut Farmland Preservation Trust and the Litchfield County Conservation District.

"And we keep Bridgewater clean," she added.

There's more. "Last year we supported two young people in town who wanted to become paramedics. They had to go to school for a year and had to keep their jobs, so we contributed toward their transportation."

"We give Thanksgiving baskets to people who are in homes, and to shut-ins. We do the Christmas Tree lighting in town and have Santa Claus visit."

And the Bridgewater Grange, with 54 members, does this through four roast beef dinners a year. All proceeds get plowed right back into the community.

Ms. Shook brought the idea of The Dictionary Project to Nancy Baran, the assistant to Principal Sharon Beitel. Third-grade teacher Denise Frank and librarian Lorinda DeSantis took a look at them - there were five versions to choose from - and picked the dictionary developed by the project itself with input from kids.

This dictionary includes weights and measures, the text of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, biographies of 43 presidents of the U.S., facts about nine planets and maps of the seven continents. Useful stuff. Words, too.

When the third graders filed into the room, Ms. Shook told them about her first experience with the Grange.

"My parents took me up to the Grange Hall in a clothes basket," she said, "all bundled up, and they put me behind the piano."

She told the kids that many years ago in small farm towns all across New England, the Grange was the center of community activity.

Then Ms. Bennett handed out the dictionaries and the noise level in the room rose as kids sat down on the floor and looked up words and facts.

"Well," said Ms. Shook, "they certainly seem to like the dictionaries."