"I've only seen them on cartoon shows," Joey, 13, said, staring at the shiny new snack machines that had arrived in the cafeteria days earlier. "But I've never seen them in a school. They're cool and stuff."

The two vending machines generated instant buzz at Rushe Middle, where kids couldn't wait to plug in their quarters and dollars.

"They have things that kids would buy," said sixth-grader Kyralexa Alvira, 12.

Things like baked chips, fruit leather, and reduced calorie cookies and muffins, and even healthier items such as hummus, carrots and ranch dressing, yogurt and peanut butter.

"They meet the Alliance for a Healthier Generation snack guidelines," said Rick Kurtz, food and nutrition services director for Pasco County schools. "It's only healthy snacks that are available."

"I wondered what I could do to make things more interesting," Crookall said. "So I thought of my art: If I can adapt this to the Bible, it will create more interest. And I've been doing it ever since."

Crookall, 87, leads missionaries in South America who travel with his Bible-based paintings and do outreach in the schools, parks and other places where they can spread the Gospel to large groups of children. He also brings his paintings to Pasco County churches, prisons and parks.

"It's more than just viewing a painting, it's an explanation of a painting that makes it what it's all about," he said.

West replaces Sheri Goldberg, who resigned late last year. He said he is thrilled to take the reins of the chamber. "I have watched both it, and the Wesley Chapel community at large, develop from obscurity to prominence," he said in a news release. "Wesley Chapel is a fast-growing community with high energy and enthusiasm that is reflected in the composition of the chamber. Many beneficial activities are happening, and I am pleased to be a part of...