Daily Pilot: Girl Scouts donate vending machine exchanging literacy for acts of kindness to Newport Elementary
August 27, 2024
Members of Girl Scout Troop 2383 hold a plaque commemorating their donation of a book vending machine to Newport Elementary School on Friday. (Eric Licas)
By Eric Licas
Staff Writer
The Girl Scouts of Troop 2383 could have bought around 100 well-accessorized stuffed animals from Build-a-Bear, 50 passes to Disneyland or some of the best seats in the house at any regular season MLB or WNBA game in Angel Stadium or Crypto.com Arena with the money they raised from cookies this year.
With the $5,000 in profit they earned after selling over 7,700 boxes of Thin Mints, Do-si-dos and other iconic treats, they might have booked a whole day at a virtual reality arcade, ordered more than 100 cotton candy makers or purchased at least 375 pounds of saltwater taffy.
Instead, they chose to give back to their school, Newport Elementary, while promoting literacy with the donation of a book vending machine. The tall blue and white box illuminated by LEDs and stocked with titles like “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” or “Owl Diaries” and entries from the Baby-Sitters Club series and Pokémon franchise is now one of the first things people see as they walk through the front doors of the campus.
Books available in exchange for acts of kindness are displayed in a vending machine donated to Newport Elementary by Girl Scout Troop 2383. (Eric Licas)
The machine doesn’t exchange books for money, Newport Elementary Principal Amanda Estrada explained. Instead, the adventures stashed inside serve as a reward in an incentive program promoting integrity, kindness and other core values in students. Whenever teachers see one of their pupils help a classmate, commit to honesty or perform some other commendable act, they can give them a voucher for tokens to use the vending machine.
“The girls unanimously decided to go the philanthropic route,” Troop Leader Jen Swisher said via text.
It was a choice they initially made two years ago, Swisher said. But they were only able to bring in about $1,000 the first time they tried. Instead of giving up and spending the money elsewhere, they saved it toward their goal and came up with a strategy to do better the following season.
This year, they made sure to tell cookie-lovers what they were raising money for, and the community responded to their cause generously, Swisher said. And those who don’t savor a chilled Tagalong fresh out of the fridge were given the option to donate their purchases via the troop to local food banks and members of the armed forces serving abroad.
Troop Leader Jen Swisher holds a plaque recognizing the Girl Scouts of Troop 2383’s donation of a book vending machine to Newport Elementary during an assembly Friday, Aug. 23. (Eric Licas)
“The girls’ love for literacy and sheer determination taught them lessons such as delayed gratification, selflessness, to not accept no as an answer when you’re passionate, to never give up, and they can do hard things,” Swisher said. “They will get to walk by the vending machine for years to come and think, ‘Yeah, we did that!’”
Scout and fourth-grader Griffin Grieve said books from the Puppy Place series are some of her favorite in the vending machine because she loves learning about animals. She told the Daily Pilot she’s excited about the possibility of her classmates developing an appreciation for biology like hers during an interview last week alongside the roughly two dozen members of Troop 2383.
The vending machine “has one of my favorite books, ‘Ghosts,‘” fifth-grader Izzy Iott said. “I like this book because it’s about overcoming your fears and putting your loved ones first.”
Girl Scout Troop 2383 poses for a photo at Newport Elementary with Principal Amanda Estrada and other faculty on Friday. (Eric Licas)
