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Though schools are now closed, at Colonial Elementary School, free books come from a machine that used to issue potato chips. And the books are rewards.
Dan Smith
Khym and Shane Spikes
“There’s this one kid,” says Khym Spikes, “whose life is hard. He’s had some extreme behavior. But he earned his first token last week and he’ll get it when we get back to school Monday. He’s really excited.”
The token was for a book. The young fellow was given a token for outstanding accomplishment at Colonial Elementary School in Botetourt County. The token fits a vending machine that dispenses books, which he will be able to take home and keep.
This is all part of a gift from Shane and Khym Spikes to the school where she teaches fifth grade.
“Our principal found a photo in a magazine of a vending machine that dispensed books and asked if we could do that,” says Khym.
Shane’s company, Deli-Matic in Salem, has gone from owning and managing vending machines to a more sophisticated and varied method of dispensing food, primarily in businesses’ break rooms. When it made the switch, there were a lot of vending machines going unused.
The principal’s question sparked a quest by the Spikeses to furnish a vending machine for children’s books. That meant re-engineering a vending machine so that instead of potato chips and candy bars, it would belch out books when a token (and not money) was inserted.
“It took months to re-configure,” says Khym, and workers at Deli-Matic enthusiastically jumped in to widen columns, replace the motor, figure out how to use tokens instead of quarters.
Almost instantly the “kids loved it,” says Khym. “There is a great incentive to read instead of getting a toy or candy for doing well. … It pushes kids who otherwise wouldn’t care” about reading.
The books are donated from various sources and Botetourt’s superintendent of schools has won a grant to buy books for the vending machine.
“He came to see it the second day it was in operation,” says Khym.
“Right now,” says Shane, “the machine is at Colonial, but if somebody approached us and I had another vending machine, we’d consider creating another” book vendor.
Deli-Matic is a 41-year-old company founded by Shane’s father, Jimmy Spikes, who evolved from a Tom’s Potato Chips assistant plant manager, to owner of a distributorship, to the vending machine business, often in convenience stores. Shane took it to the next step.
The book vendor, of course, is not a profit center. The couple got involved because “it seemed like the right thing to do,” says Shane.
Just about everybody agrees.
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