Centre Hall Elementary got the ‘Golden Ticket’ with this book vending machine

Penny Eifrig watched with tears in her eyes Friday morning as her long-planned literacy initiative launched at Centre Hall Elementary.

The Golden Ticket to Literacy program was officially launched by Eifrig’s nonprofit, Random Acts of Reading, after nearly a year of planning and work. The program provides a book vending machine for students, full of indie children’s books for all grade levels.

“I’m really excited about that these kids are being rewarded for really, really hard years,” Eifrig said.

Although other book vending machines exist, what makes the Golden Ticket to Literacy program special is the dedication to equity and diversity, Eifrig said. The program provides a curated list of independent and diverse books so administrators and educators don’t have to bear the brunt of curating hundreds of books to fit the machine. The program also runs off of golden tokens, which students can earn for good behavior. So every student has an equal opportunity to use the machine — no money required.

“Every child is going to get a book and even the kids that are having a hard time making their bonus points,” Efrig said. “They’ll figure out some way that every kid is going to be able to achieve that goal.”

Students will also have an opportunity to write their own stories that can be featured or digitally published by Random Acts of Reading.

Some books hold special tickets for ice cream treats, a pass to wear a hat for a day, borrowing the principal’s chair and one golden ticket. Once a student finds the golden ticket, the book’s author will Zoom in, sometimes internationally, to speak with the students. All grade levels will also receive a copy of the golden ticket book.

Eifrig is a Lemont resident and longtime independent book publisher through her company, Eifrig Publishing. The idea for the golden ticket hidden in a book vending machine came to her in April 2022. With funding from her parents, Sue and Ron Smith, she was able to purchase and stock the machine that will reside in Centre Hall Elementary for the rest of the year before rotating to another school.

Eifrig hopes that local districts, businesses and communities will rally around the idea and fundraise money to purchase one of the $11,000 programs for their own buildings.

“This machine will be a roamer kind of like to introduce it, but ideally a school would purchase for their own so the PTO can raise funds for it,” Eifrig said. “If you get 10 businesses who want to give 200 bucks, that funds the entire meet the author event, so it’s very affordable.”

Three students were picked from an assembly to use the machine, Annelise Snyder, Nathan Houts and Kensley Praskovich. The students expressed their excitement for the program and their new books.

“Sometimes when I’m bored I just like to grab a book and it entertains me for a while,” Houts said.

This story was originally published February 3, 2023 at 3:57 PM.