Lake Elementary unveils Inchy’s Bookworm Vending Machine

        The Lake Elementary PTO, with supportive funding from Rudolph Libbe, announced a new program intended to help boost reading and literacy in the school’s young students.
        An unveiling of a new Inchy’s Bookworm Vending Machine was set for Friday, Sept. 27, in the Lake Elementary School Atrium. School officials and staff, community leaders who helped make the vending machine possible, and students were invited to the event.
        The book vending machine will allow students to choose books that interest them to support the habit of reading for pleasure and to help build home libraries, according to Miranda L. Henry, Lake Elementary PTO president and Book Fair chairperson.
        The first of its kind in the Lake Schools system, the machine will be used as a resource alongside the elementary’s PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports) reward system and as a pillar in the school to build excitement in students around book ownership, independent reading and academic success.
        “Our machine is being dedicated to the late Mrs. Andrea Brady, beloved fourth-grade reading teacher,” Henry said.
        According to the U.S. Department of Education, up to 61 percent of low-income families do not have any books for their kids at home. Forty-five percent of U.S. children live in neighborhoods that lack public libraries and stores that sell books, or in homes where books are an unaffordable or unfamiliar luxury.