BOOK VENDING MACHINES

With 60 percent of our third graders not reading at that level, our foundation is focusing on providing books to students from kindergarten through fifth grade.

We do this by purchasing book vending machines (at about $6,500 per) and installing them in local elementary schools, along with campaigns to purchase the books. "Gold coins" are distributed by teachers to students who achieve academically and they are inserted in highly public locations to engender positive peer respect and excitement.

The books go home to build student libraries and to read with their parents, many of whom speak limited English so that the students is teacher the parent.