Book vending machine unveiled at Sullivan Elementary School

We are honored to announce a special unveiling was held at Sullivan Elementary School, recipient of an Inchy the Bookworm Vending Machine.

Students gathered for the big reveal of their brand-new Book Vending Machine, a project made possible through funding from the Heart of Illinois Community Foundation. This custom-designed machine was created by the school’s own staff and will be used to encourage and reward student reading all year long. When students meet their reading goals, they’ll receive a special token they can use to select a book from the machine, a book they get to keep and treasure.

For the past two weeks, the machine had been hidden behind a giant cardboard box while students participated in a fun “Masked Reader” challenge. Staff members disguised their faces with Memojis while reading aloud, offering clues about what was hidden beneath the box. This morning, the mystery was finally solved! The readers were revealed, the machine unveiled, and one student from each grade was randomly selected to be the very first to use the machine. It was a joyful celebration of literacy, creativity, and community support.

Annually, the HICF's Next Chapter Literacy Fund supports grant funding to place two new book vending machines in area schools and provide grants for additional books within existing machines.