March 12, 2013 – Members of the Long Beach Public Library Foundation and The Earl B. and Loraine H. Miller Foundation met at El Dorado Neighborhood Library to celebrate with students from Cubberly and Saint Joseph elementary schools the donation of the groups’ 100,000th dictionary to Long Beach 3rd graders. Miller Foundation President/CEO Walt Florie (pictured) and children’s librarian, Gail Tweed (pictured), spoke to students about the 11th anniversary of Dictionary Day, which has a goal of getting a dictionary in the hands of every 3rd grade student in Long Beach to ensure children have dictionaries at home to help them with spelling. Special instructional material is distributed with each dictionary to train children in dictionary usage. “It is so great to see the excitement on the children’s faces when they get their dictionaries and to watch them as they look up new words,” Sara Myers, executive director of the Library Foundation, said in a statement. “We are very proud of this program. With the help of a grant from the Earl B. and Loraine H. Miller Foundation which funds Dictionary Day, we have placed an incredible 100,000 dictionaries in the hands of youngsters over the past 11 years.” (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Thomas McConville)