Photo Provided Bellaire Elementary students, from left, Alydia Perko, third grade; Grayson Bennington, fourth grade; Damon Bickmeier, kindergarten; Kruzden Briggs, second grade; and Madison Perko, first grade stand with the new book vending machine at their school.

BELLAIRE — Bellaire Elementary ended its annual Fall Book Fair with an all-school assembly and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the brand new Inchy’s Bookworm Book Vending Machine.

This custom machine purchase was made possible through contributions from the school’s PTO.

Students will be able to earn tokens for the machine through reading achievements, positive behaviors and teacher-designed contests.

The goal of the program is to promote literacy and excite students to read.

The school and community continue to take proactive steps toward promoting literacy.

Hope Rises, a local nonprofit organization, has already partnered with Bellaire Elementary to donate the first batch of books loaded into the machine.

“The book vending machine was something on our teachers’ wish list. The goals of our building are to become strong readers and to be great people. We are ‘all-in’ on anything we can do to help achieve our goals and promote positive behavior,” said Principal Ben Doyle.

He continued, “Our PTO has done a great job with fundraising and supporting our staff and students. We are committed to showing our community and supporters that their investments are being put to good use through student engagement and achievement. We are very thankful.”