TEAMMATES MENTORING
Chapter receives machine, grant through READ Nebraska
Thanks to the Team-Mates mentoring program and a READ Nebraska grant, Loup City Public Schools was recently awarded a new book vending machine.
The local TeamMates chapter was awarded the machine—stocked with 300 books—late last month, alongside a $5,000 grant from READ Nebraska.
“This came through Team-Mates in Nebraska and the READ Nebraska grant, and one of the things that it allowed us to do is get this book vending machine free of charge,” said Loup City Superintendent Dean Tickle in an interveiw earlier this month. “The machine was just a part of the grant, which is aimed at promoting reading improvement through mentoring.
“There is an emphasis, when [our Team-Mates members] meet, for them to read and do things that support literacy.”
The Nebraska Department of Education’s (NDE) READ Nebraska program bookmarks funds to support mentorship programs, like TeamMates, aimed at improving the reading levels of elementary students across the state. The $5,000 in grant funds awarded to the local TeamMates is to be used by the chapter to “reimburse… mentorship- related expenses, including training, background checks, marketing, supplies, volunteer recruitment, evaluation, and other costs,” according to the program’s website.
“We can use that $5,000 for recruiting, marketing, and [mentor- mentee] match support, and training… at the chapter level,” noted Tickle, “and for funding for background checks. One of the expenses TeamMates has is background checks for mentors, to make sure that we’re following safety protocols.”
Some of the award, added the superintendent, could also go towards transportation costs for TeamMates group events, bringing “celebrity guest speakers” to the district, and “swag” like t-shirts aimed at promoting awareness of the chapter.
“We got t-shirts for the unveiling of the machine during our parent’s night [on January 31st],” Tickle noted.
TeamMates Mentoring Program Coordinator Becky Mroczek, said in the same interview that, in writing the grant, the local chapter had been required to identify a need for reading support within the local chapter.
Some TeamMates members will be getting “extra training,” she said, “and twice a year, they will get bags of books, just to support literacy within the program.”
The local chapter had written the NDE grant last summer, following the 2024 TeamMates Annual Conference in Lincoln. TeamMates Foundation members at the state level, said Tickle and Mroczek, had “led the charge” in helping the Loup City chapter
“ The whole idea is to promote literacy and get books into kids’ hands.”
— Dean Tickle successfully apply.
“We were approached by [TeamMates Foundation President] Suzanne Osborne-Hince, Tom Osborne’s daughter,” said Tickle. “She’s really been a champion of the READ Nebraska grant through Team-Mates.
“She told us this would be a great opportunity for our new
chapter.”
The chapter found out they had been accepted for the award later last summer; the book vending machine arrived late last month, shortly before its unveiling on January 31st.
The new machine, which is emblazoned with the TeamMates logo, sits in the foyer of the Loup City elementary school.
Books can be purchased through the machine with tokens.
“You can’t put money in it; you have to get a token,” said Tickle. “Once you use that token for a book, you own it.
“After we unveiled the machine, to celebrate, all of our Team-Mates kids got a token,” he added. “They all got to go up and pick their books…It was like Christmas; they were giddy, a lot of smiles. It’s nice to see books create that level of excitement.”
“We have thirty-one students in TeamMates right now,” Mroczek noted.
According to the superintendent earlier this month, the local TeamMates board was still brainstorming how and why tokens would be rewarded.
“Our board is talking about how we want to reward kids and make sure there is a steady flow of books out of there to promote literacy,” he said. “We really hope to come up with some creative ways to get lots of books out of that machine and into kids’ hands.”
According to Tickle, a preexisting book vending machine—purchased by the Loup City Public Schools Parent Teacher Organization— has been moved “over to our primary building,” where it will be “stocked with preschooler and kindergartener books, so that all the kids pre-k through grade five will all have the opportunity to get books through the vending machines.
“That uses the same type of token system,” he noted.
In concluding the interview, Tickle noted that the last week of January had been “a big week” for Team-Mates.
“Our chapter was one of several chapters around the state who all got our machines at about the same time,” he said. “A lot of good went on because of TeamMates…A lot of kids around the state got books, and there were a lot of celebrations.”
The superintendent said that the local chapter was committed to using the grant award to promote the program and the goal of literacy, and committed to “making sure we keep that machine stocked with books, and that they’re things that kids enjoy.
“The whole idea,” he concluded, “is to promote literacy and get books into kids’ hands.”
