Studies have widely shown that developing a child’s reading skills sets them up for success in their educational process for the rest of their school years and beyond. In this world of technology, finding ways to make kids want to pick up a book and read can be a challenge. Thanks to the efforts of two retired Callaway teachers and TeamMates mentors students at Callaway Public School not only have a new option for books - they are excited about it!

Suzanne Wendorff and Teri Miller are the driving force behind the acquisition of a TeamMates grant to provide a unique vending machine at the school. Unlike traditional vending machines filled with snacks or beverages, this one is filled with educational material like books, puzzles, and games.

“I was involved in TeamMates when I taught in Lexington and when we moved to Callaway I became involved in the Callaway chapter,” said Wendorff, Callaway TeamMates board president. “I’ve been a TeamMate for more than 10 years.”

Wendorff said she and Miller, who has been a Team-Mate for two years and a board member for nearly that long, attended a conference last year in Lincoln where they were introduced to a program called L2L (Linked2Literacy). The program is designed for third through fifth grade students, and Wendorff explained that in order for a school to qualify to be part of the program they must identify at least five mentees at those grade levels and match them with mentors.

The program is funded by a grant that came through the legislature two years ago and was implemented just last year. “After Covid so many students came back with under grade level reading skills and needed that extra boost to help. That is kind of where this idea came about,” said Wendorff.

After hearing about L2L she and Miller decided to attend several breakout sessions at the conference to learn more. When they returned to Callaway and pitched their idea the ladies said they had the full support of school administration and went to work recruiting mentors. They were able to meet the requirement of five matches to “earn” the vending machines.

The machine is a gift to the school from TeamMates who stocked it with the first 300 books. It is operated on tokens and the school staff has been working to come up with ideas for distributing those tokens to students.

“Each teacher gets two tokens each month to give out however they want. For grades K-3 for every 20 minutes they read they will be given a raffle ticket, and for grades 4-6 every book they read will be given a raffle ticket,' explained Elementary Principal Brittany Jesseph. 'We will draw those bi-weekly, so 40 books a month will be given out in addition to the teacher’s tokens. At the end of the school year we want to make sure that everyone has gotten the opportunity to get a book.”

Jesseph said they also plan to add some titles to the vending machine geared toward grades 7-12, though they have not yet decided how those opportunities will work yet.

“The kids are excited. It’s like a full-time book fair,” said Jesseph with a giggle.

Karen Weverka has been a TeamMates co-coordinator at Callaway since 2017. Until now, she said, the program at CPS has been for grades 7-12 and she is excited that elementary students are now being included. “The best time to make a match is when they are in elementary. But we knew it was going to be really hard to keep our 7-12 going and add down, so this was a great way to start. And anytime you can hook anything to literacy it’s a good thing.

'We really need more mentors, especially males,' Weverka continued. For more information contact Callaway Public School.