Valley View Elementary School students are receiving new books thanks to an unexpected gift from a non-profit led by a teenager. The Columbia Heights school was selected as one of only four metropolitan schools to receive 500 brand new free Scholastic books for students at the school.

"Every student at Valley View is receiving five books each, including our PreK," Principal Willie Fort said. One of the first was fourth grader Jada Taylor who received her five books Nov. 16 from Teacher Teresa Fenske.

Read Indeed is a 501c3 nonprofit literacy organization with the mission to promote literacy by collecting and gifting books to at-risk children. The non-profit was the vision of Maria Keller, who began Read Indeed when she was 8-years-old. Her original goal was to collect and distribute 1 million books to children in need by the time she turned 18. She accomplished this goal before the age of 13.