‘I’m proud of the community.’ Centre Hall raises money for book vending machine of its own
After weeks of fundraising, Centre Hall Elementary is awaiting the arrival of its own book vending machine.
Following Golden Ticket to Literacy’s successful pilot program at the Penns Valley Area School District elementary school this spring, principal David Romanyshyn put together a GoFundMe to help raise the funds needed to purchase a permanent machine. The school hit its $6,500 fundraising goal on May 10, after just under a month of fundraising. The total cost covers the purchase of a brand-new $5,000 machine, books to fill it and GoFundMe fees.
“I’m proud of the community,” he said. “Just proud of how everyone stepped up because it’s hard when people have to pull money out of their own pockets to support something.”
Romanyshyn said the machine has positively impacted the student’s excitement about reading and shows the district’s strong commitment to literacy. Pennsylvania Department of Education Executive Deputy Secretary Angela Fitterer also visited the school to choose a book and speak with students during the pilot program.
Romanyshyn said many parents could see firsthand how excited students were during the short pilot program.
“I think it sparks an excitement for reading that is great to see,” he said. “We got a lot of positive feedback from parents, from our community members about it and the community rallied to raise money for our own vending machine.”
Penny Eifrig founded the program as part of her nonprofit, Random Acts of Reading. Through the Golden Ticket to Literacy, students earn tokens that can be used to redeem a free book in the machine. Hidden in one of the books is a golden ticket that leads to a school-wide author event, along with free copies of the golden ticket book for all students.
“It was a fabulous opportunity to have the machine in Central Hall,” Eifrig said. “The response from the kids was exactly what I was hoping to see.”
One of the unique parts of Eifrig’s program is the type of books she curated for the machine. She chose a variety of books from independent and diverse authors, books students are unlikely to find already on their library or bookstore shelves.
“Especially in today’s age of censorship and restriction and under diversifying libraries, making sure that kids have access to diverse books is super important,” she said.
As the Penns Valley school year wraps up, Eifrig is arranging for the machine to be moved to Discovery Space for the summer, where it will be filled with STEM books and kits for museum patrons. She’s already had several inquiries about the program from schools in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey for the fall but has yet to decide where the pilot machine will go next.
