RUSSELLVILLE, Mo. - For the last nine weeks, fourth-grader Josie Stewart has been earning tickets for good attendance, displaying the monthly character trait, improving her math goals and scoring well on Reading Counts quizzes.
Stewart exchanged those tickets for pink Hello Kitty items for her sister Corianna, who was sick Wednesday and was unable to visit the Russellville PTO Store with her kindergarten class.
PTO volunteers Maggie Schrader and Lindsey Stinson have helped set up and operate the PTO store for the approximately 400 students in pre-K through eighth grade one day each quarter for the last four years.
Most of the young elementary students quickly use their tickets on books and toys. The older elementary students sometimes save their tickets for larger items. Middle school students use their tickets mostly for soda and candy.
Stewart's generosity to spend her tickets on someone else was shared by a second-grader, who selected a gift for his classmate Maelyne Cartee, who is recovering from head trauma.
Typically, it's the second quarter store day, which is near Christmas, when teachers and volunteers hear the students selecting items for their loved ones. Then, the National Junior Honor Society offers to wrap the gifts for the students to take home.
The PTO benefits from the donations of teachers, families, anonymous community members and its business partners, Target and Scholastic.
Donations are welcome for the December store, said PTO volunteer Maggie Schrader. Popular gift items include ornaments, candy, coffee mugs and gently-used toys, puzzles and books.
Items donated but not appropriate for the PTO store, such as hygiene items or office supplies, are passed on to the school counselor to distribute on an individual basis.
Fourth-graders are responsible for keeping track of their earned tickets. In Sarah Kennedy's class, she holds on to the second-graders' tickets until store day. And at the middle school, teachers track points rather than distributing tickets.
"Everybody gets tickets for showing up," Kennedy said. "For more tickets, they put forth more effort - it doesn't take long for them to figure that out."
Elementary students average about 20 tickets each quarter. A plastic bracelet or recycled fast food toy is three tickets. Then the number increases for cups, books, decorations, toys, puzzles, games and bags. On a shelf above the "check out" table sits a Polly Pocket Flip "N Swim worth 70 tickets and Pillow Pets for 60.
"There's a lesson here for those who save," Schrader said.
Without students realizing it, the store is reinforcing their math skills as the little ones count out their tickets or as the little shoppers calculate the cost of wanted items versus their tickets in-hand.
Keeping up to date with each student's weekly tickets earned takes extra time, acknowledged fourth-grade teacher Rachel Ratcliff.
"But it is pretty motivating for them," Ratcliff said.
She's heard students complain when they must leave school early or arrive late, because they do not earn perfect attendance for that week.
And a reminder in the middle of the week will drive students to take their reading tests, which they must do on their own time, Ratcliff said.
"We want them to be excited about what they do, and it's fun to watch them come down here (to the store)," she said.