Book vending machine spurs excitement among Pasco’s youngest learners. Here’s why
The first book pulled Friday from Virgie Robinson Elementary’s new vending machine was about a young newspaper boy who survived the deadly 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
The book — “Sobrevivi el Terremoto de San Francisco,” written in Spanish by Lauren Tarshis — was picked by 5th grader Katelyn Garcia.
“I like, ‘I Survived,’ because it has history and I really like to learn about things that happened in the past,” said Garcia, the school’s student body president.
History is Garcia’s favorite subject. She said it was exciting to get the first book, and even more exciting to delve into a subject she’s never read about before.
The Pasco School District unveiled the new book vending machine at a ribbon cutting event hosted by students, staff, financial contributors and family of the late Virgie Robinson. It’s a project three years in the making for the east Pasco school.
It’s the district’s third vending machine. The goal is to promote literacy and foster a love of reading among students.
Virgie Robinson students earn Comet Bucks throughout the school day for demonstrating safe, respectable and responsible behavior. They use the paper money to redeem coins for the vending machine and “purchase” new and gently used English and Spanish K-5 books for free.
The colorful, LED-lit vending machine is chock full with more than 100 books varying in subjects and reading levels.
“To actually see that book vending machine here is special,” said Robinson’s eldest son, Rickie Robinson, 72, of Kent.
The Virgie Robinson Memorial Scholarship board — which includes Rickie and Reka Robinson, Virgie’s granddaughter — contributed $1,000 toward making the vending machine a reality.
They were in good company, too, as a student-led penny drive contributed $1,006, the ASB gave $1,000, and the Peak Partner Kiwanis of Horse Heaven Hills and J.R. Simplot Company donated $500 each.
“Reading is important because without reading you can’t do anything, you can’t do math unless you can read. Reading is at the top of the list in the hierarchy of learning,” Rickie Robinson said.
Virgie Robinson’s legacy
About 500 students attend Virgie Robinson at 125 South Wehe Ave. in Pasco.
Three-quarters of students are English language learners and only 1-in-6 students meet grade-level English reading standards, according to a Washington state report card. Nearly all students are of Latino background.
Virgie Robinson Principal Maria Sandoval said young students coming out of the pandemic have been excited to engage with physical books.
Today’s 4th and 5th graders were in remote learning when COVID disrupted them in kindergarten and 1st grade — years which studies have shown are some of the most formative for early reading and language comprehension.
But school wide reading initiatives, challenges, book fairs and donations have cultivated a love of reading for Robinson students the past couple years. Students are excited to take home books, and school staff are intentional about getting books in students’ backpacks and hands.
“There’s this excitement that I believe has been reignited where (students) don’t always need to have a phone or a tablet or a computer. You can actually just read a book. And they’re excited,” Sandoval told the Tri-City Herald.
Next year, nearly all K-5 classrooms at Virgie Robinson Elementary will be two-way dual language, meaning native-speaking English and Spanish students will communicate and engage in subjects in both languages. All 5th grade students who graduate from the school starting next year will be fully bilingual, a skill the school district has highlighted as highly marketable to employers.
Virgie Robinson Elementary opened in fall 2005, named after the beloved Pasco educator who had died just two years earlier.
Robinson was hired in 1966 as a school ombudsman and immediately showed extraordinary skill as an outreach worker serving Pasco families. Many students attributed their high school graduation and success to her intervention work.
She worked her way up to eventually become a director and retired after a 25-year career.
She was very active, influential and loved throughout the African-American and Hispanic migrant communities.
“It was because of that attitude and approach to working with people of all cultures that filtered down to the rest of us, through our whole family,” Rickie Robinson said.
Virgie Robinson Elementary is open to receiving donations of new or gently used books. For more information, donors should contact Sandoval at 509-543-6086.
The Virgie Robinson Scholarship Fund is hosting its 10th annual spring golf tournament April 20 to benefit student scholarships. Tee off is at 1 p.m. Cost is $125 per player and includes 18-holes of golf, a cart, lunch, swag bags, door prizes and more.
