OCM BOCES book vending machines reward kindness with literacy

Tues., December 30, 2025

OCM BOCES book vending machines reward kindness with literacy

Imagine swapping the usual candy or sticker rewards at school for something far more lasting: a brand-new book of your very own.

That's the twist we’ve brought to our Crown Road and Cortlandville Campuses at OCM BOCES. Since summer 2024, eye-catching book vending machines have been turning good deeds into fresh reading adventures for our elementary and middle school students.

These machines, which resemble classic snack vendors from the outside, are stocked with an exciting variety of books chosen to match students' diverse interests. From thrilling adventures to funny graphic novels, there’s truly something for everyone.

At our Crown Road Campus, the program syncs perfectly with quarterly Kindness Award ceremonies, where students earn special tokens for demonstrating positive behavior. They then get to step up to the machine and pick their prize.

“A lot of students are motivated by food, trinkets and fidgets, but we have elementary and middle school students who really do love reading,” said Christine Woodring, principal for Special Education at the Crown Road Campus. “It’s a little different and makes reading fun because you have all these different options—kind of like having a bookstore in your school.”

The thrill doesn’t stop at school doors. Parents are seeing the impact at home.

Allison Murray, whose sixth-grade son attends Crown Road, calls it the perfect combination of encouragement and enrichment.

“There’s no better way to reward” positive actions, she said. “It’s rewarding great behavior and also helping him pursue a passion for reading and for literacy. Now he’s coming home and reading these new books, which, as a parent, I love.”

Over at our Cortlandville Campus, the machine serves as a powerful, targeted motivator, especially for students working hard to improve in any area.

“If we know a student’s been struggling to do well, and they’ve done well and show me, they can earn a gold coin for the vending machine,” said Kim Capalogo, Special Education principal at Cortlandville. “We want to really make sure it’s not an everyday reward.”

This creative initiative taps into a nationwide wave of schools using book vending machines to celebrate kindness, effort, and growth while quietly building home libraries one token at a time.