Brandon Keefe was in third grade when he decided to make a difference. One afternoon at a parent-teacher meeting to discuss the building of a library for a children's home, Brandon heard how difficult it was to get books. And he thought he might have an answer.

"Everybody had books on their shelves that they'd outgrown, why not give the ones we've already read to kids who need them?"

What began as a community service project for his class is now the grassroots nonprofit organization BookEnds, which has given away 76,000 books to children in need, has completed 23 libraries and has 19 other libraries in development. This will result in books and improved literacy opportunities for more than 33,000 underprivileged kids and their families.

"The help of the many people that supported me and the organization, and seeing the reaction of the people we were helping, kept me motivated to push farther and help more people. I never realized that some people didn't have the luxury of going into a library and getting a book! If people see that you have confidence in what you are doing, they, too, will have confidence in helping you."

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