On Tuesday, May 24, Swainsboro Primary hosted an unveiling event for the school’s first ever book vending machine. This groundbreaking technology funded by school fundraisers and assistance from the primary school’s PTO is an educational leap that encourages a passion and love for reading in local students. Following Tuesday morning’s unveiling, SPS Principal Ron Hirst advised of plans for implementing the machine during the upcoming 2022 –2023 school year to correspond with the school’s reading initiative, “Read Like A Tiger”. SPS will use achievement coins for the vending machine. These coins will be awarded to students who will use the coins in the machine to select their book of choice from a selection of new books the school purchased for the innovative program. The area behind the vending machine will be decorated in a jungle theme by SPS teachers for a creative, fun, learning environment for students to retreat to after selecting their books. “We want our students to enjoy and have a real passion for reading. If you don’t enjoy reading, you’re not going to be good at reading,” SPS Principal Hirst commented during the unveiling event. Comments were also heard from Jill Scarboro, SPS PTO president, who spoke on the efforts put into obtaining the custom designed book vending machine for the school and expressed her appreciation to those who helped make this a reality for the school and its students.
