The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
MacAfee Road Elementary School is the latest school in the township to offer a unique way to instill a love for reading in their students: a book vending machine.
Joining the ranks of Claremont and Hillcrest elementary schools, and the Thomas Edison EnergySmart Charter School, MacAfee students will be able to earn tokens they can use to “buy” books from the machine.
The brainchild of Wilma Rosikiewicz, chair of the school’s Growing A Garden Of Readers Committee, the machine was made possible through a donation by Jimmy Lee, founder of township-based Joy Systems.
“Mr. Lee has been very generous to McAfee Elementary School over the years and he has made all of these wonderful opportunities possible, especially the one that is happening today,” principal Karen Adams said.
Rosikiewicz said plans to bring in a vending machine have been in the works for a few years.
“A few years ago I saw the vending machine, and I was like, we have to find a way to get this in our school,” Rosikiewicz said. “With the help of a little angel that we have, we were able to bring it to fruition.”
“Our kids are going to have many different opportunities to get books, whether it’s a birthday celebration, whether it’s a monthly challenge that they’re going to have, we’ll try to engage parents, family members so that everyone is a part of it.,” she said.
“As the kids get more excited, maybe they’ll give us ideas about how they want to earn books,” she said.
Rosikiewicz said the school asked students and teachers about what types of books they like to read, then ordered the books and put in the top ideas from teachers.
“Our goal is to keep them incentivized to want to keep” using the machine, she said.
The Franklin Reporter & Advocate was on hand for the unveiling:
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