Inspired by her passion for reading and the desire to provide books to children who do not have the means, Orono Middle School eighth grader, Maria Keller, is the founder of the non-profit organization Read Indeed, a book-giving organization that collects and distributes books to kids all around the world who don’t have any.

In the spring of 2009, Keller’s vision to distribute books to kids started small with a successful book drive at Holy Name Church, collecting about 1,000 books.

A few weeks after, “we were at dinner, and she said, ‘I want to do another book drive,’” Maria’s mother, Maura Keller said, “‘and this time, I want to [donate] a million books.’”

With the support of her mom and dad, Maria set a goal to collect and distribute one million books to children worldwide by the time she was eighteen years old.
With an initial story by Kare 11, “[The collection of books] just kind of snowballed,” Maria Keller said.

Piling donated books up in the family’s garage and dining room, complete strangers started knocking on the Keller’s door and dropping off books.

After a publisher in Mankato donated 30,000 books in the Keller’s driveway in the summer of 2009, Read Indeed moved to a warehouse in Hopkins to accommodate the incoming book donations.

On Oct. 8 of 2013, 13-year-old Keller reached her goal of 1 million books–five years prior to her original deadline.
The organization’s current number of books collected and distributed is at 1,046,743.

Benefitting kids throughout 30 states in the U.S., as well as children in 13 nations of the world, Keller’s new goal is to distribute books to every state in the nation and to every country in the world.

Keller’s organization and the surpassing of her initial goal five years early has been noticed by media outlets across the country.

On Jan. 22, Maura Keller received a call informing her that her daughter was a recipient of America’s highest honor for public service, the Jefferson Award.

“I was sleeping at the time,” Maria Keller said, “so I got up and she told me and that was really cool.”

Known as the ‘Nobel Peace Prize for public service,’ Keller was anonymously nominated and is one of three teenagers to be awarded, along with Tom Brokaw, Mariano Rivera and Andrew Shue. She will be honored for the “Outstanding National or Global Service by a Young American.”

The Jefferson Award was founded by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1972 and since then, has awarded recipients such as Oprah Winfrey, Sandra Day O’Connor, Peyton Manning, Colin Powell and Ted Kennedy.
The mission of the Jefferson Award is to “build a culture of service.” The Jefferson Award and the award ceremony has connections with more than 110 media partners across the world, which will bring international attention to Read Indeed.
Attending the National Award Ceremony in New York City on March 5 with Keller is her father and grandfather. While Keller does not know which person she will be receiving the award from, she has been preparing her acceptance speech.

While the Jefferson Award is the most prestigious award Keller has received, it is only one of her many other recognitions, including features on Kare 11, Ellen Degeneres’ Ellen’s Good News site and The Huffington Post.
The publicity has not affected Keller, as she “is just very humble,” Maura Keller said.

Through leading the non-profit and conducting board meetings in front of several adults and peers to discuss her vision, “Maria has learned how to become really astute, articulate and self-assured without being arrogant or pompous or conceited,” Maura Keller said.

When it comes to comparing herself to past recipients of the Jefferson Award, “I don’t think I have done nearly as much as they have, but it is still really cool to know that I might meet some of those people,” Maria Keller said.
The organization has become a family affair, as Maura spends on average 10 hours a week on Read Indeed, mostly responding to the 50 to 100 emails a day that come in regarding how to donate, how to volunteer and more. Maria’s father and brother regularly contribute to the non-profit, as well.

Additionally, Read Indeed “gets so much help from people and volunteers” that all of the time spent counting, separating and boxing books is “not that bad,” Maria Keller said.
The Keller’s are motivated to continue after “hearing the stories that just pull at your heart strings” and make “you take that deep breath and go, ‘okay, let’s keep going,’” Maura Keller said.
“Read Indeed is not just me anymore. It’s a lot of different people,” Maria Keller said.

In addition to the Keller family, Read Indeed is dependent on many volunteers, including two Boards of Directors: an adult board led by Maria, and a Youth Advisory Board consisting of kids ages 10-15.

Both boards assist in fulfilling Maria’s vision, while focusing on ways to expand and improve the organization.
“I’ve had so much support from people; it is really amazing how much Read Indeed has grown” with the help of board members and volunteers, Maria Keller said.

As a 501c(3) non-profit, Read Indeed is able to accept tax-deductible books and monetary donations from donors on specific days listed on the organization’s website.

There are also volunteer opportunities for everyone on the second Saturday of every month. Volunteers assist in counting, sorting and boxing books.

“Though I might not be as big of a part of it [in the future], because I will go to college, I think that my family will still be able to lead it.”