Natasha Agarwal, a 15-year-old freshman at Canterbury School in Fort Myers founded BelieveNBooks, a charity focused on helping young children learn to read. 

Realizing the impact that reading had on helping her get through the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, Agarwal began to look for ways to help others get access to good books, according to the organization’s website. She started the organization in 8th grade “so that everyone has the chance to get lost in a book.”

Since then, BelieveNBooks has distributed over 30,000 books and served over 5,500 underprivileged children around southwest Florida and beyond.