Spirit Creek Middle School in Hephzibah unveiled its new book vending machine Monday afternoon, much to the delight of students.
Seventh-grader Christian Walker, who finds it “really cool” to be able to get free books, gave a small demonstration of the device, using a token to acquire a novel from the “Halo” series of books.
“All you’ve got to do is be good in class,” said student King Wilkes, whose favorite genres to read are mystery and fantasy.
The book dispenser comes via the L4GA Grant, part of Georgia’s Literacy for Learning, Living and Leading program, in which the state distributes funds toward Georgia school districts toward improving literacy.
Students can “buy” books using special tokens they earn with good behavior, part of the Richmond County School District’s Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program to reduce disciplinary incidents, increase safety and improve academic performance.
Rella Hicks, instructional specialist at Spirit Creek Middle, submitted the order to purchase the machine through the grant last year, selecting early this school year for its installation. The vending machine arrived on July 27.
Hicks made sure the new book distributor would be a surprise for students.
“The kids did not know that it was coming,” said Hicks. “But when it got here, there was excitement and I started getting the questions, ‘when can we get points, when can we get books!’ So I wanted to enter after the official ribbon cutting before we started handing out tokens.”
The school is also able to purchase a large cache of books through the same grant, so that the machine can be refilled with new “hot off the presses” titles as needed, said school principal Kimberly Rouse.
“My kids are very excited about the vending machine,” said Rouse. “We’re really pushing literacy and students reading, so this will help motivate them to read.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
