BARTOW, Fla. — The former mayor of Bartow loves passing on his passion for the power of words. Steve Githens has been delivering thousands of special dictionaries to third-grade students in Polk County for many years.
On a recent morning, Githens was loading up a dolly with boxes of the books from the back of his car and taking them inside Eagle Lake Elementary School. “So, they say there are 120 students here at Eagle Lake Elementary,” said Githens as he loaded the books onto his dolly.
“I’ve probably been in and out of the school ten times over the years I’ve been doing this dictionary program,” he said. Githens raises funding for the Bartow Rotary Club project that he took over about 14 years ago. He was able to raise about $20,000 for this year’s program. That allowed him to purchase 5,000 of the books that cost about $4 each…