FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Hundreds of students at Weatherbee Elementary School in Fort Pierce are going home with new books to read and new worlds to explore.
WPTV and the Scripps Howard Fund sponsored their Scholastic Book Fair as part of the "If You Give A Child A Book" campaign.
Each of the school's nearly 700 students was able to pick out and take home three free books from the book fair.
Students like fourth grader Sebastian Garcia couldn't wait for the opportunity.
"I was really excited," Sebastian said. "I'm not going to lie."
Classmate Jordan Waiter said he loves to read.
"You find stuff the authors write that is interesting and exciting and use your imagination," Jordan said.
Kelly Nigro, the principal at Weatherbee Elementary School, discussed the importance of the event.
"As educators, we want to promote literacy as much as we can for our students and many of our students don't have the ability to get many books," Nigro said.
This book fair is giving them that opportunity.
"Books are expensive and sometimes a family has to decide between buying that book or are they going to buy dinner, so just the fact that the kids were able to have the books, they got to pick what they wanted," Nigro said. "There was no, 'No, that's too much, put it back or no, don't buy that type of book.' They really just had in their age group the ability to go in and pick whatever they wanted, which was just amazing."
The principal said it's all about fostering a love for learning.
"They are still asking, 'We can take them home? Yes, they are yours,' Nigro said. "So, just growing that love for reading is our most important thing here."
She said the event brought her a great feeling.
"It gives me goosebumps to think of all the opportunities that they have when they read a book," Nigro said. "We've just really enjoyed it this week."
The fun didn't stop at the book fair. The school also hosted a barbecue to celebrate reading and unveiled a new book vending machine. Good behavior and good attendance can earn the students a gold coin to put in the machine and dispense a book.
