As a way of giving back, retired Ector County ISD principal and teacher Merita Hart donated a book vending machine to Goliad Elementary School.
Unveiled Friday morning, it also provided birthday presents for students King Swearington and Jayden Bueno.
“My husband and I have always been readers,” Hart said, adding that her husband also retired from Odessa College.
“We thought that it was important and so this is one of the ways that I give back,” Hart said.
She added that she worked with Education Foundation Director Celeste Potter to identify a school to donate a machine to and Potter suggested that Goliad would be a good choice.
A group of about 16 students were invited to the unveiling. Swearington and Bueno went first to use it because Friday was their birthday. But all the students were excited and tried to guess what was inside before the ribbon cutting. (Guesses included everything from photos to a variety of food).
Swearington, a third-grader, turned 9, and Bueno, who is in fourth grade, is 10. When it vends, the machine says, “Enjoy your book.”
Swearington chose a “Captain Underpants” book and Bueno got one called “I Survived.”
“I thought it was cool and fun,” Bueno said of receiving the book.
Asked what she thought of the youngster’s reaction to the reveal, Hart said it was really special.
“It was just really neat to hear them talking to each other about it,” Hart said.
Goliad Principal Cristabel Gonzales said the campus serves prekindergarten through fifth grade students.
“We’re so excited,” Gonzales said. “Our goal is to really increase … reading,” she said.
The vending machine will be part of an incentive program for students to improve their reading fluency and get them pumped up about learning.
Gonzales said there are some friendly reading competitions taking place between classes, so this will be part of their reward. The books will be used as an attendance encouragement, as well.
Media Specialist Starla Redwine also will be offering incentives in the library and the PTA is going to help fill the machine with free books for the students, Gonzales said.
The coins used for the machine are called “Inchy the Bookworm Tokens.”
“And then on the back it says ‘I love books,’” Gonzales said.
The Education Foundation Board of Directors recently announced its plans to invest more than $100,000 to purchase a Bookworm Vending Machine for any ECISD campus that doesn’t have one in celebration of ECISD’s 100th anniversary, a news release said.
The Goliad vending machine makes 12 throughout ECISD. Potter said she has three more machines that are due to be unveiled this coming week and she has ordered nine more.
“And I’ve got more coming after that, so that every school in the district will have one,” Potter said.
The middle and high schools also will get machines, but they’ll look different and they will be custom wraps to go with their school theme, plus the ECISD logo.
“The company, Global Vending Group, is actually going to design the wrap for those and then each school will get to approve it,” Potter said.
The machine installed at Goliad cost $3,995, without the books, plus freight, she added.
It can hold 23 books; previous machines held about 20.
Potter added that Hart’s donation means a lot to the foundation because it complements its Bookworms Literacy Program, which provides students in grades prekindergarten through first grade with a new book every month to take home and keep.
“It’s just one more opportunity to get free books in the hands of our kids to grow their own home libraries,” she said. A survey was conducted at the beginning of the year and the end of the year for the Bookworms program and one question was whether the child had a book at home. For a lot of pre-k students, Potter said the answer was no.
“So that’s why we’ve also got the Little Free Libraries at all of our elementary schools. I also have some of those at Bowie, OHS and New Tech Odessa, so we’re trying to get as many books into the hands of kids as possible. The Little Free Libraries usually use the books that have been donated to us and we do all the new ones either through the Bookworms program or the vending machines,” Potter said.
