Excitedly holding a golden token in their hands, a group of second and fifth grade students at J.L. Everhart Elementary awaited the unveiling of a book vending machine on campus.
Waiting for a book to drop from the machine and hearing “your book is on its way” was music to the students’ ears as they awaited their free book.
Fifth grader Alexa Martinez had her eyes on the Harry Potter series and was happy to have the opportunity to get a new book.
“I wanted to get Harry Potter because I feel like I learn a lot of stuff in it and I like to read because you can learn new things and know new things,” Alexa said.
For fifth grader Messiah Williams, he wanted a book about his favorite sport and was looking forward to putting his mind to work while reading.
“I got this book because I love basketball and I think I can experience a lot of basketball through this book,” he said.
The book vending machine, now located inside the library, was given to the campus through a grant sponsored by Greater Longview United Way, and also a book sponsorship by Wellness Pointe of $1,000 for the next five years to help replenish the books in the machine.
During the ceremony, Evan Dolive, executive director of Greater Longview United Way, said the organization has given a total of five vending machines and J.L. Everhart is currently the only Longview ISD recipient.
Dolive said the United Way is proud to partner with the district, especially on something that helps with the “read to succeed” initiative and has shown success among students.
“We focus on three core things at the United Way, and that’s health, financial stability and education,” he said. “We know the challenges facing educators, because of the COVID slide, we went the fun way to get books into kids’ hands besides just handing them a book. We talked to schools that had a machine like this and they reported to us that the number of books checked out at the library went up because of the machine, the reading scores across the district went up and behavior problems went down.”
Crystal Locke, principal of J.L. Everhart is thankful for Greater Longview United Way and Wellness Pointe, and is looking forward to the impact of the vending machine.
“I hope they take away the love for reading, the desire to have more knowledge, the desire to go out and investigate things that you want to learn about,” Locke said.
She also mentioned the books will provide quality education for students on a daily basis by providing an opportunity to read things they normally wouldn’t be able to. Locke also said the vending machine will help students enjoy reading more and will help with reading and comprehension skills, which will be an asset to the students’ future.
To receive tokens to use at the machine, Locke said students will be awarded through different incentives such as attendance rewards and good behavior, participation, which will vary throughout the months.
Locke said a main goal is to allow every child the opportunity to get a book.
According to Samantha Chastain, staff who applied for the grant, students are able to get a variety of books.
“We’re the only authorized IB school in the district and with that comes a high responsibility with what we’re sharing with our children when it comes to character traits and how they can see the world. So when I looked at the book list, I looked at what kids would be engaged by and how those books could display what it means to be principal, what is balance, what is diversity and inclusion and I made sure we ranged grade levels from one to five because those are the grade levels that will be using it,” she said.
Locke added that the selection of the books is aimed to inspire students, and even showcased a resemblance of themselves as well, she said.