Christopher and Chelsey (Howard) Hudson of Arlington, Texas, announce the birth of their daughter, Paisley Jean Hudson, at 7:09 p.m. Sept. 18, 2013. She weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces and measured 19.5 inches. Her grandparents are Kevin and Nancy Myers of Kenai, Curt Howard of San Diego, and great-grandparents Jim and Betty Harris, of Soldotna, and Larry and Pat Clontz of New Mexico.

Ashley Epperheimer, a sophomore from Kenai, and Megan Neill, a junior from Soldotna, have been named to the Dean’s List at Harding University in Searcy, Ark., for grades achieved during the fall 2013 semester. To be eligible, a student must carry 12 or more hours with a 3.65 or higher grade-point average.

Margaret Braun and Sarah Ralston, both of Kenai, have been named to the Fall 2013 Dean’s List at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, R.I. To be included on the Dean’s List, students must have completed 12 or more credits during a semester for letter grades with at least a 3.30 quality point average.

The Kenai Elks Lodge recently distributed dictionaries to the third-grade classrooms in their service area. About 200 dictionaries were handed out to schools in Nikiski and Kenai.

Dr. Dennis Swarner and Joel Macrander were the principle Elk members involved in the effort, joined this year by Mary Jackson, Exalted Ruler.

“The students and teachers were fantastic; Dennis and Joel were a great team for teaching me the ropes,” said Jackson, adding “I had a blast!”

According to Jackson, the Elks, primarily through Swarner’s and Macrander’s efforts, have been distributing the dictionaries for years now, prompting one teacher to tell her class that her sixth-grade son still has his dictionary from three years ago.

The dictionaries are ordered through “The Dictionary Project,” a national organization which helped to provide 2,397,306 students with dictionaries in 2013. The Project was formed in 1995 and cumulatively has provided over 18 million dictionaries. The Kenai Lodge provides the shipping costs.

“In this age of computers, it was surprising to witness how excited the students were to get their very own book — a dictionary,” said Jackson. “Sometimes old school is still the best course!”