KEA and Harding School PTO team up to share the joy of literacy
By Leslie Bedford, Kenilworth EA vice president
In September 2019, before we knew about the impending pandemic, our superintendent Kyle Arlington shared an article with me about a unique vending machine—one that dispensed books. It came with an incentive program for students: earn gold coins and use them to purchase books from the machine.
As an additional promotion, student artwork can be used to form a wrap around the vending machine that personalizes it for the school.
I immediately thought of our kind and generous PTO at Harding School. They’ve used their precious budget to purchase carts for science kits, help fund the supplies to paint the interior walls of the whole school to look like a gameboard with characters from favorite stories, and fund yearly assemblies. But the year went on and my work on this project got pushed farther down the infamous to-do list.
Then we went into quarantine.
As the 2019-20 school year ended, I starting to regroup from the virtual learning experience. I was thumbing through the now much longer to-do list. My eyes fell on the vending machine and I decided it was time for some research.
I called a wonderful man named Ken at Global Vending who could not have been more helpful or cheerful during the pandemic. After getting a price, I reached out to Mr. Arlington, Kathleen Murphy our principal at the time, and Mr. Bubnowski, our vice principal, to ask if I could pursue it with the PTO.
With the personalized artwork the vending machine would cost about $5,000, almost the exact figure that our PTO allots for assemblies. I asked PTO President Gerri Colon and Vice President Alessandra Bonacchi if we could reallocate the funds to pay for the vending machine. They jumped on it!
Talented Harding families promote art contest
We planned an art contest via social media to solicit entries to be considered for the vending machine’s wrap. But how could we promote an art contest during a pandemic? Fortunately, we have some very gifted families in our school community. We tapped into the video-making talents of the Rivera family and the acting chops of the Singleton family.
The Rivera twins, Adriana and Carly, and Devin Singleton were all students in my class last year. When I called them, they eagerly agreed to participate in the video. You can watch the video at bit.ly/hardingartcontest.
Kenilworth EA donates books
It took about 12 weeks to get the vending machine.
The machine is loaded with books that were donated by the Kenilworth Education Association and purchased by the school. Each teacher will come up with a way for a child in her class to earn that magic gold coin.
On Jan. 28, 2021, we invited the students whose artwork is featured on the machine and the students who were in the art contest video along with a parent, the board, and the administration to the Book Machine Bonanza—with everyone safely distanced and masked. These students were the first to drop that special gold coin to get a book!
At the end of the day, we want to encourage a love of reading and have something positive to look forward to. We wanted to try something positive, exciting, and of course tied to reading to help everyone through this difficult time. With help from the whole school community, we have.