Growing up around the world as the child of a military parent, Louis Geer (17 | San Antonio, Texas) saw service in action every day. When his family settled in San Antonio where Louis attends high school, he was struck by how difficult the lives are of many of his neighbors. As the poorest metro area in America, San Antonio has many people just struggling to get by. Louis was deeply affected by how much suffering there is on the home front and has dedicated much of his time and effort to making things better on a local level.

A lover of learning, Lucas noticed that every year many of his fellow students would stock up on academic prep books and required class books, then throw them away once the school year ended. At the same time, millions of students across the country were unable to afford or access these same books. There were also few places where books could be donated and then redistributed to those most in need. As a solution, in early 2020 Louis founded the San Antonio Book Pool, a non-profit designed to help less-privileged students gain easier access to books.

With over a dozen youth and adult volunteers from across San Antonio, Book Pool works to get books in hands of students through book drives, direct book donations, and fundraising efforts to buy new books. In the last two years, Louis and his team—with the support of community partners including Family Service, Boys and Girls Club of San Antonio and San Antonio Youth— have collected and donated over 4,100 books! To ensure all youth are able to benefit from Book Pool’s work, Louis is pushing for the collection of Spanish-language books and collaborating with the partner organizations to identify specific book needs and best support youth. As Book Pool grows, Louis continues to think of ways he and his organization can help, incorporating summer reading programs, tutoring sessions, and read-a-thons!