CHESTERFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — An elementary school in Macomb County is working to inspire more kindness and reading.
A few weeks ago, the staff at Francis A. Higgins Elementary in Chesterfield installed a book vending machine. In order to earn a token to buy a book from the machine, students have to perform an act of kindness or meet their academic goals.
"We have a 'Hawk Walk' every year and we always want to raise money to do something special for the kids at school," said principal Susan Trebilcock. "This year we decided to have the kids work toward earning a book vending machine. The community, the families, the parents all came together and raised enough money and beyond to get us the book vending machine."
The vending machine, which is custom-painted with the school mascot hawk, now sits in the hallway near the library.
"We have a wonderful group of kids at Higgins who are always spreading kindness so this is just one more piece to incentivize them to do that," said Trebilcock.
Wednesday, four students were able to pick a book of their choosing from the machine.
" I normally choose random books so instead of just reading the same I wanted to see a new adventure," said student Ethan after he picked The Diary of a Pug.
Carson, who is also a student at Higgins, says he earned his book token by using kind words toward his teacher and his fellow classmate after she correctly solved a difficult math problem.
"The reason why I chose this book is because there’s a movie of it and I like the movie," said Carson.
Elementary student Adriana says she was so excited to earn a coin and trip to the vending machine Wednesday. She says she chose Super Narwhal after looking at it for days in the machine.
" I’ve been really interested and really wanted to read it," said Adriana. "I don’t know how to explain, I was so happy."
In the few weeks the school has had the vending machine, they've already given out dozens of books.
"We compete a lot these days with video games and YouTube and all of that. So we wanted to get books in the hands of kids and just get them excited about reading," said Trebilcock.
Amy Brender is the literacy specialist for Higgins. She says the program has the potential to significantly boost students' reading engagement.
"There is a big correlation between students who read more and their vocabulary development. So we also want to encourage that vocabulary development because it will cross over into all aspects of their life," said Brender. "Junie B. Jones, Amelia Bedelia, we have Diary of a Wimpy Kid in there, some of the pug books. What’s exciting about that is if we can get them hooked on one, then typically a student will want to stay in that series," said Brender.
The school says by the end of this semester, all 440 Higgins students will have received their own book.
